SG-ATLGundam 00: Pillar of Aeon
by Evident Disaster
Summary: In the aftermath of the Pegasus campaign's the United Earth Federation Forces fleet under the command of the newly appointed General Carter and Colonel Sheppard are caught in an accident which sends the fleet into another reality, now stuck in an alternate reality where the machines called mobile suits exist, the members of the Atlantis Expedition must adapt to the new world. CH3!
1. Chapter 1

SG-ATL/Gundam 00: Pillar of Aeon

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AN: For all new readers this is going to be based off an AU universe of the Stargate stories I've been planning on starting, well technically it's started I hadn't had a chance to update thanks to so many fics.

This is unlikely to be updated very soon, but this is just an idea, so keep this in mind, it may be continued but it's to spark new ideas in people. I thought taking a more unique approach would be good. And yes this content will undoubtedly be recycled from the previous Stargate ATL/ Strike Witches.

I know this is taking a shortcut, but once again, this is more of an idea kind of story meant to spark ideas and help me develop a better story later. Think of this one as a rough draft.

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CH1: The first flight, the first fight…

2010/2/22

The galaxy is a vast place; you never know what might happen out there, so many wonders, so many adventures, and so many unbelievable sights which few people might get to see. Albeit the universe is filled with many wonders, it also happens to be filled with insurmountable amounts of dangers, such is the way things always are.

For Rodney McKay, space was filled with awesome sights, but of course that didn't mean there weren't some serious risks to travelling it, like aliens who could suck the life out of you with their hands, or parasitic aliens which can hijack your body. Oh there was also the various alien races and their politics, also the dark side of the various agencies on Earth who wanted to use the Stargate for their own purposes.

But for Rodney that wasn't going to be the case, not today anyways. He was enjoying a relaxing time trying to sort out the multi-dimensional folds of subspace to better regulate the flow of zero point energy for the new Arcturus class Cruiser, which had been constructed in the Pegasus galaxy. It was the first of a new line of ships for long range engagements, not to mention better in combat.

The Arcturus was built with the most advanced level of technology available, ready to use against anything, well nearly anything, the ship was just 1 of 3 which had been constructed, and the others were still at dry dock back on Lantea. The Arcturus he was currently on was the one which had been finished ahead of schedule.

It needed testing before it could be put into full use, not to mention, since it was the first ship launched of its class, it required a number of tweaks. The other reason why this ship class was called the Arcturus, an incident over 4 years ago with an Ancient Atlantean experiment which was supposed to draw zero point energy from the universe, but it overloaded and exploded.

Rodney wasn't too fond of remembering one of his greatest screw-ups but, this Arcturus was based on the same principle. The ship was created to draw zero point energy with its new zero point reactor, but not only that, this one had one additional upgrade. The multi-dimensional drive, a new form of FTL which would open wormholes for ships to pass through, but of course it was all theory.

The experimental drive was a very complicated piece of theoretical dimensional physics; meaning if something went horribly wrong, well there wasn't telling what'd happen. Rodney, pushed the thought of disaster away as he focused on the zero point generator, he tested the output of energy once more and doubled checked his findings.

"Ok ZPG is holding at 90%, looks like we're in business." Rodney announced over the ship's intercom.

He heard the gruff reply over the coms.

"Good, we've just finished the diagnostics of the shields and weapon systems; they're all in the green. Also McKay, you might want to speed it up, Carter's set us up a meeting in the conference room, and you don't want to miss it again."

Rodney rolled his eyes as he replied.

"Fine Sheppard, but do tell Carter that if she can do this any faster, then she can come down here and do it herself." McKay replied in a sardonic tone.

"I'll be sure to pass that on." The voice of Sheppard replied in an equally sardonic tone.

As the com line closed, McKay got back to work on the console controls for the generator, he wondered what they could possibly be meeting about, but of course he knew better than to miss a meeting. It usually involved details about dangerous assignments or some new anomaly they can all fly right into.

But that was just another day in the Pegasus galaxy, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And he knew that from experience alone, he'd been through the wringer a few times with luck in the past, though he didn't necessarily believe in luck, it was all about probability. He finished up his overview of the generator as his fellow subordinate Radek appeared.

"Oh good you've just made it back, I've got a meeting to attend to so just check on the usual output of the drive, and oh right, don't press anything with the drive." McKay said as he walked out of engineering.

Radek responded plainly. "Oh I'll be sure to not touch it like how you started to touch controls on an ancient bomb last time."

McKay replied in disdain. "Hey that wasn't my fault; no one ever said the bomb was in built with a motion sensor." He said before he turned the corner and out of sight.

Rodney straightened out his uniform as he walked through the corridors of the Arcturus, he wondered if they'd bother changing the lighting for the ship someday, it was always so dull, he wouldn't mind if they put in some high band UV lights, those tended to feel a lot better. As he walked through the grey metal corridors of the ship, he took a moment to reflect.

To clarify, McKay had a near brush with ascension, becoming an ethereal being of incredible powers and such; he did for about 5 minutes before he returned to the physical plane of existence thanks to the aid of some powerful friends. He took some time to make meditations and relax; of course he did this when he had time.

It was strange but a calming thing, of course terrible to do it during the middle of a warzone or emergency. He looked at himself, here he was 41 years old, and still good, albeit thanks to the aid of the UCAF giving him some regenerative treatments which reduced his aging process and reverted him a couple of years younger.

Brown short cut hair, calm deep brown eyes, and a really bad habit of being agitated easily, arrogant, condescending and overly confident, of course he had his reasons, being one of the smartest people alive in the human race, barring the Ancients of course. He was only matched by his sister, Samantha Carter, a few other people across Earth, and then there was Eli Wallace.

He still couldn't believe a 21 year old wash out from MIT managed to figure out a means of successfully generating zero point energy using a reactor as a containment device. He knew he'd run into some smarter people across the galaxy, but a washout from MIT pulling this out of his hat was definitely a new one.

Rodney calmed himself, no need to go all aggro before he even made it to the conference room, as he took some time to think it over; he figured the universe is full of people, probably a lot of smarter people. He might get along with a few of them, also taking credit as part of some greater project was usually a good idea.

Speaking of Eli, as McKay reached the end of the corridor which exited into a cross section in the ship, he turned into the nearby lift where he was greeted by the short curly haired late teenage boy who had a PSP in hand and playing avidly.

"Hey there." Eli said as he played intently on the mini console.

"Hi." McKay replied awkwardly.

McKay never truly understood the point of playing games in this day and age, of course to be honest he wasn't much of a gamer to begin with, games and such depend on reaction, hand to eye coordination, or some sense of imagination, which he wasn't really such a big fan of. Eli on the other hand was creative and possessed a great sense of ingenuity.

"So, where're you off to?" McKay said as he pressed on the pad of the lift control.

"I'm heading off for the meeting." Eli muttered as he continued to play.

McKay was taken aback. "Wait why are you needed at the meeting?" He asked the gamer.

Eli shrugged as he continued to play. "I dunno, the Colonel wanted me at the meeting to brief me on some stuff regarding our next jump, I probably suspect it has something to do with the trans-dimensional drive enhancement I had you guys install." He replied as he jiggled around his PSP.

McKay was a little sceptical about why the new drive needed the game-boy's attention, but if Sam thought it was necessary then he couldn't overrule her decision as much as he would have liked to. McKay wasn't much of a fan of Eli's gaming habit, it seemed rather distracting, ok the kid managed to jump a ship from the inside of a planet, and maybe blow a star up.

But it didn't excuse his lax behaviour in all of this; he was still a member of the expedition, who also happened to be a bit better versed at multi-spatial physics than he was, and well a bit faster at doing things. But he was still older than Eli, and a lot more experienced, at least in some areas.

Of course holding this over Eli would just make him look like an ass in front of everyone else, so he didn't bother trying. As they reached deck 7 the doors opened up and let them out, Eli seemingly knew that this was the level to get off of even though he was still engrossed in his game, it was strange. Did the boy have a navigation app for his PSP?

The more McKay thought about it, the more it gave him a headache, he decided to leave the question as he and Eli turned the corner. McKay was greeted by the sight and sounds of a certain officer. "Oh Sheppard." He exclaimed as he greeted the specialist marine.

Sheppard who had been ahead of them turned about. "Hey McKay, Eli, what's going on?"

Before he could say anything Eli, paused his game and faced the colonel with a smiled.

"Hey Sheppard, me and McKay were just heading to the meeting."

"That's what I was going to say." McKay threw Eli a look.

"Well since you two are here, any ideas what the meeting's going to be about?" Sheppard asked as he continued down the corridor.

McKay and Eli tagged behind him in tow, McKay began.

"It could be anything at the moment; I wouldn't be surprised if Sam's calling us up because of how the ship's still not absolutely finished."

"Hey I doubt it. The Arcturus is fully functional, aside from the small issue of the multi-dimensional field drive. It should be at peak efficiency." Eli stated.

"Yes, but it's also because of that new drive you installed for the Arcturus that we're stuck out here in the middle of nowhere trying to get it ready for its formal launch." McKay quipped in response.

"Hey I'm not the one taking 4 hours to run 4 diagnostics at once, besides, since when have you cared about my projects? Mr I'm busy learning about the secrets of the whole freaking universe." Eli retorted.

"Will you two quit it already?" Sheppard interjected.

The two most brilliant members of the Pegasus Research Department dropped their argument and followed the Colonel to the conference room; it wasn't long till they were greeted by various members of the ship's crew and officers of each military division aboard the ship. The conference room, which was fairly spacious, was built with utility in mind.

It was an amphitheatre which was large enough to fit a C-130 Hercules inside and then some, the rows and rows of seats which were positioned in a fashion which wasn't claustrophobic. Down in the floor level of the conference room was a single set of chairs ringed around a large holographic display unit. The majority of the conference room chairs and tables remained empty, since this wasn't necessarily a full command briefing.

Down on the floor level was where everyone was gathered, Carter was just going over some Data-pads of whatever reports she was receiving still from across the Arcturus aside from that, she had most of her focus on matters currently occurring across the ship and well across the rest of the galaxy.

Ever since the Wraith Empress was killed things have been steadily going back to the way they were before, albeit the fact that the UEF United Earth Federation was still engaged in war with the remaining Goa'uld System Lords, Baal's last clones, the Nak'esh, and a handful of other troublesome species which seemed to have popped into existence since 12 years ago.

To currently explain the state of affairs of the United Earth Federation, the UEF has been around since the start of 2004, with the help of some extra-universal help from the UCAF, a faction from another universe which helped Stargate Command become as crucial in defending Earth and various other worlds from various threats.

The Lucien Alliance was one said threat until a few months ago when most of the Lucien Alliance Leaders were killed by the UEFF United Earth Federation Forces, under the command of Colonel Mitchell. The Lucien Alliance was responsible for the mass murder of millions throughout its brief rise to power; it held dozens of worlds until the UEF became cohesive enough to challenge their power.

Other factions such as alien races were becoming a more common sight thanks to the fall of the goa'uld empire, but that said, there was a sharp increase in more aggressive alien races. Since the fall of the goa'uld the Nak'esh and a few other races have been encroaching on neutral ground and attacking trading outposts across open space.

The UEF had made the decision to begin implementing patrol forces for each nation, country and etc. to begin large scale recruitment for the UEFF to help in securing the borders of the UEF from dangerous races which had come to rise. Carter who had been part of the SGC was also a leading member in the UEFF itself.

It was why she was caught up in all of the paperwork; she did technically help create the UEF and also help in expanding human knowledge of the universe. A colony here in the Pegasus galaxy was also named after her, thanks to her contributions to saving lives from the Wraith, Replicators, Collectors and the Genii made her a public figure amongst the inhabitants of the galaxy.

McKay grinned as he recalled the day he got a whole battleship named after him, of course Sheppard wasn't so please since McKay spent the whole week bragging about it. Sheppard then muttered about something as they reached the ground floor.

"Looks like we've got Caldwell here." He nodded in the direction of the officer who had been assigned to the Pegasus expedition some years ago.

McKay turned his head to see the bald officer; Caldwell was seated on the other side of the table with a few other commanders from the various ships of the escort group assigned to the Arcturus. McKay hadn't seen the good old Colonel since their last little drop in a few months ago; well technically he wasn't a Colonel anymore.

McKay's thoughts were interrupted.

"Okay people let's get this briefing underway." Sheppard announced as he took his seat on the 3rd arch table left of Caldwell.

Carter cleared her throat as she put down her data pad.

"Very well, I've come to announce that the UEFF High Command has decided that a temporary ceasefire is being discussed between us and the Genii." She stated in a slightly agitated tone.

"What?" Sheppard exclaimed with a look of surprise.

"You've got to be kidding." McKay agreed.

"I wasn't anymore happy with it than you are, but since we've been at war with them for the past 5 years the UEG (United Earth Governments) aren't pleased with the way we've been having to put out spot fires since this war began. As much as we'd like to ensure that Kolya doesn't try another coup with the Pegasus Coalition Government, we cannot continue to expend resources at the moment." Carter explained.

"Because of that new expedition being planned by Dr Jackson?" Sheppard asked Sam.

Sam was a bit hesitant in replying but she nodded.

"The UEFF has been trying to construct the new Avalon class Carrier for the better part of 4 years, the resources required to construct it have been taxing the UEF to continue manufacturing new ships and repairing our ships."

McKay decided to inquire.

"Ok seriously Sam, why does Jackson even need a 7.2 kilometre warship anyway? I thought his pet project was supposed to relate to the Ancients most highly secured scientific project?" He said in a satire tone.

"Well since you've asked so nicely McKay…" She gave him a slightly disapproving look, which he knew immediately she didn't like him poking at Daniel over his work, he looked away to keep her glare from him.

"The Avalon's supposed to be a large scale transportation ship for extended trip's across the universe, particularly, the ship is meant to reach the Antares galaxy within a week. And carry enough personnel and equipment and resources for the expedition, since Laputa is supposed to be a dozen times the size of Atlantis, not to mention requires supposedly a lot more resources to maintain."

"Now that's been squared away, I can guess we're going to be standing down our alert status along the galactic borders?" Caldwell inquired.

Carter nodded. "Pretty much, we can't afford to maintain as many ships out in the Pegasus galaxy at the moment, the UEFF had decided to reduce our current forces by a third for the next year." Carter stated before sighing, her past 3 years as the military commander of the Pegasus Expedition had been wearing her down considerably.

Sheppard palmed his face.

"We haven't even dealt with the current problem of Wraith remnants still around the galaxy; we can't possibly expect to eliminate the last loyalist Wraith factions without substantial forces." He said in a rather dispassionate fashion.

Carter empathised with him. "I know, but the UEF believes that we can hold with what we have, and if necessary they'll launch the reserve fleets from around New Melbourne and direct them here." She tried to reassure the Colonel.

Sheppard rolled his neck back and just decided to accept that the UEF Government is probably up to its neck dealing with political issues regarding more local problems like the goa'uld system lords which still continued to plague local shipping routes with hit and run attacks. Not to mention one survivor of the Lucien Alliance, a commander named Kiva whose father was executed for war crimes.

The Lucien Alliance holdout was determined to inflict as much damage upon Earth as possible and had been held responsible for recent terrorist attacks on shipyards in 3 sectors of space, the need of forces to go and hunt her down have been trying. It was doubtful this problem would be resolved soon, which was going to be more problematic for the Pegasus expedition.

"So aside from the usual crap we have to go through, is there any good news from the UEF High Com?" Sheppard asked.

Sam pulled out a data pad and said. "Well there are a couple of good things to say about today."

"What would be the first?" McKay inquired.

"The first is that we have been given advanced resources for creating the Arcturus class, General O'Neil came through for us in requesting the UEF take the situation here more seriously." Carter began.

"Which means he wants to even out the little hiccup the UEG made for us?" McKay deadpanned.

Carter threw him another glare which he dropped the subject. Carter explained clearly.

"The Arcturus is going ahead thanks to the urgency of the new Expedition, not to mention the UEF is somewhat uncertain to do with the situation here in Pegasus."

"Well it's expected, they aren't technically here doing this themselves, and I probably doubt they'd really like to try." Caldwell stated.

"Bureaucracy at its finest." McKay added dispassionately.

"Well at least we got the green light for the Arcturus or we'd be waiting another 8 months to get a reply from the UEF High Command." Eli stated optimistically as he changed the game on his PSP.

"So what's the last bit of good news before the universe smacks us in the face?" Sheppard asked with a light yawn.

Carter pulled it up on her data pad and stated.

"To Colonel Samantha Carter, current commander of the United Earth Federation Forces stationed within the Pegasus galaxy, it is my distinguished honour to announce your promotion to Brigadier General of the United Earth Federation Forces effective immediately. Your years in service to Earth and its colonies are greatly recognised by all members of the UEF and believe your distinguished service is worth merit.

Signed Chairman of the United Earth Federation, Henry Hayes.

Note that there will be a formal ceremony on Earth on the 15/4." Carter finished.

The conference room was suddenly dead silent from the announcement, aside from Eli who was still playing on his PSP, who after a moment said.

"Oh congrats Sam, it's about time they made you a general." He said in a mildly happy tone whilst engrossed in playing Devil May Cry.

Samantha was taken aback by the sudden announcement as well, she didn't expect that they'd promote her after all this time; it was a refreshing change of pace. Sheppard broke out of his surprise and added. "Well congrats General Carter." He said thoughtfully.

Caldwell seemed a little bit more surprised than the rest of them, but also added his approval.

"It's about time, though I have to say their timing is somewhat tedious, if I do say so ma'am." He said in respects to her new rank.

Rodney was also approving, though he agreed.

"This seems kinda convenient; as soon as they reduce our military presence they make you brigadier general, am I the only one a little suspicious by all of this?" Rodney asked them all aloud.

"No, but it's better than nothing, I'm assuming that this is probably going to be a formality, Hayes is going up against some tough opposition in terms of his position back on Earth, the UEF has plenty of people who'd want to put someone else in power than him." Carter stated as she closed the data pad.

"Great more politics, as if our little escapade with the Trust didn't scare those idiots back on Earth." Sheppard muttered as he shook his head.

"A great recipe for disaster, but I think it's still worth the promotion, I'm sure General O'Neill voiced his approval as well, as much as he could really say." Eli said as he continued to play only glancing up as he finished his sentence.

"Well the good thing about all of this is that Carter can't get overruled by the other officers in Pegasus now, Petrukov himself will undoubtedly be annoyed at this. But better we have him angry at her than try and overrule another decision like in 2008." Sheppard stated in his observation.

"So if that's all of the good news, anything else we'd need to know?" McKay inquired as he wrote down some notes of what to begin investigating.

"Nothing else, Atlantis forwarded an update on the expansion project to the mainland was going well, they've almost got Newport ready for the next colonists inbound from Earth. The update with Todd, he's gotten out of that bind back on VD-093, and Ronon along with Teyla have begun to open up trade with the Avarians, they'll be back next week." She finished up on the reports.

"Well looks like we won't be having any new disaster any time soon, which is usually a bad omen." McKay stated.

"Why is that?" Eli inquired.

"Because every time we get a short break somewhere in the galaxy something really bad tends to happen." McKay stated.

It was then the conference room's intercom came active.

"Uh ma'am, this is the Ironclad-12-34 we've got an unknown contact approaching on the other side of the system, we're cannot make a confirmation, they parked themselves right into the atmosphere of the local gas giant." The commander of the Ironclad stated.

Everyone got out of their seats to head over to the main bridge, Carter replied over the com.

"Keep an eye on them, and don't move to ID, if they make a move in our direction pull back."

"Understood ma'am." The commander replied.

"So I'm guessing that this is probably that slightly bigger problem?" Eli asked McKay.

"Probably." McKay stated as they rushed up the stairs to the exit.

Sheppard was already ahead, his augmented body took him 4 paces ahead of everyone else. Officers, crewmen and other such individuals were rushing to their stations, undoubtedly preparing for whatever was going on. Caldwell broke off at the lift intending to get to the transporters; he had to get to his cruiser which was parked alongside the Arcturus.

As the rest of them reached the bridge, they were greeted by Sam's favoured pupil and one day successor, Commander Jennifer Haley. "Ma'am." She greeted the new General.

"What's the situation?" Carter inquired.

Haley brought up a map of the solar system on a holographic display unit near the command/control section of the bridge; it highlighted the third planet in the system.

"We've got one ship, size is consistent with a Wraith Cruiser, its currently holding position within the gas giant's atmosphere."

"Great, Wraith again, the fun just never ends with those guys." Sheppard muttered as he looked over the data himself.

McKay checked the sensor logs as well; Eli who put his PSP away grabbed a computer tablet and was going through the secondary sensor relays in some attempt to get a better resolution on the vessel.

Carter inquired. "Any signs of any other Wraith vessels in the region?"

McKay checked the long range sensors.

"Nothing in the hyperspace emissions, they're pretty much empty."

"Isn't the nearest Hive fleet over a week away from here?" Sheppard asked them aloud.

"Yeah that is the case, but that doesn't mean the Wraith don't send in some advanced scout ships to check out star systems." McKay stated as he doubled over the sensors.

It was Eli who discovered something.

"Hey guys, I'm getting faint electromagnetic emissions coming from the second planet in the system, I'm reading a large dispersal pattern changing at a rate of 0.3 seconds." He stated as he looked over the sensors.

"Haleyy what's the status of the fleet's shields?" Carter asked the commander.

Haleyy stated in a calm disciplined reply.

"We have full shield functions, though Captain Caldwell states the Daedalus is having some minor issues with its lower shield emitters, he's got his engineering teems working on it."

"Good, McKay what's the status of our hyperdrive?" Carter asked the Canadian science officer.

"Well I've got the secondary hyperdrive working; we were still in the midst of fixing the primary hyperdrive to the ZPG, it's going to take at least another half an hour." He replied as he changed over from the bridge console to a mobile tablet.

"Uh, guys, I think we have a problem." Eli stated as he looked over another sensor anomaly.

"What is it?" Carter asked the young prodigy.

The alarms started sounding; the voice of the ship's AI Amanda appeared.

"Sorry for not appearing sooner, I finished running full diagnostics on the status of our primary and secondary systems; I did a double over on our sensor logs and found three approaching shadows approximately aft of the fleet." The AI stated.

McKay was a little startled at the sight of the AI, he hadn't gotten used to Amanda since the whole incident with being trapped in a chamber with a crazy malfunctioning android.

"Seriously couldn't you just materialise on the holo-projector?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"As much as I'd like to argue the point of my arrival, we do have more pressing concerns." Amanda stated in an annoyed tone towards the scientist.

Eli agreed. "Those ships look really damn familiar."

It was then Amanda exclaimed. "Ships have begun charging high energy impulse weapons; energy signatures are consistent with Wraith Stalkers."

"Oh that's not good." Sheppard stated as they received a warning.

"Incoming volley." Haley said as she rushed down to the CIC below them.

The ship shuddered slightly as the Wraith Stalkers fired their lances.

"Energy impulse was directed exactly aft of our shields, we've received a high end energy burst, receiving overall capacity overload near junctions 3-21-11."

"What was their target?" Carter inquired.

"They hit our hyperdrives, those energy bursts were directed at our shield harmonics. They bypassed our shields and overloaded the control junction, we've lost hyperdive capability." McKay said in alarm as he checked over the damage report.

"Ma'am Wraith vessels have begun moving out of their positions; I count a total of 9 Wraith vessels." Haley stated as she took command through the CIC.

"Incoming communication from the Daedalus." A com officer stated.

"This is Carter." Sam stated over the com.

"General, we've powered up weapons and are moving to a defensive position aft of the Arcturus, what's your status?" Caldwell inquired.

"We've sustained energy damage directed at our Hypderdrive; we've lost FTL capability at the moment, McKay's working on it, but we're counting 9 Wraith ships on approach along with Stalkers, you already know what to do, cover us for the moment, we're going to need to get the Hyperdive back online." Carter ordered.

"Very well we'll hold our position aft." Caldwell stated.

Amanda then announced with a slightly tuneful tone.

"General Carter, I have detected additional Wraith ships on approach."

"I thought you said there weren't any other ships in reach?" Sheppard asked with a questioning look at McKay.

"I did, unless they masked their FTL signatures…" He then realised something. "Just like the Empress did back in 09."

"Oh that's just great, just when I was beginning to feel better about space again." Eli stated as he rushed off to the navigational interface on the right side of the bridge, technicians were going about trying to map the approach.

"Think it's a remnant faction of the Empress?" Sheppard asked.

"Very likely, looks like they haven't lost their touch." Carter replied as she looked over the sensor ghosts on approach.

Eli managed to discern the approaching vessels approaching.

"We've got a Hive Dreadnought and what looks like 5 cruisers, and a whole mess of smaller ships."

"Just great, looks like they were waiting for us." McKay stated as the other Wraith vessels began to close in around their fleet.

"I doubt it McKay, if anything their Stalkers probably tracked us through subspace and traced us right here, probably took the chance to attack while we were vulnerable." Eli stated.

"Makes sense." Sheppard agreed.

"Well we better start figuring out a means of getting out of here. I don't think even Arcturus was built to fight that many Wraith ships especially a dreadnought." Carter said in an urgent tone.

"I'm working on it." McKay stated as he began to work.

Amanda thoughtfully stated. "At the best possible time we cannot fix the hyperdrive in time, I estimate that the Wraith fleet will be right on top of us within the next 5 minutes, and if calculations are correct, the Dreadnought alone will effectively reduce our shields to minimal levels through sustained bombardment." The AI stated clearly and calmly amidst the battle.

"Any good news?" Sheppard asked them openly.

"I've got nothing, it'll take another 20 minutes for us to get the secondary hyperdrive fixed again and the primary is still not mounted with the ZPG, I can get started but that'll take at least another 30 minutes to get running." McKay said before adding. "That's assuming those Stalkers or any more like them don't overwhelm our shield emitters and hits us with another pulse blast, or we're sitting ducks." He stated as he looked over the damage of the main hyperdrive.

"Can we send a message to Atlantis?" Carter asked.

"Not possible, they've flooded the system in subspace scramblers; I doubt anyone within range of us will be able to help though." McKay said as he began to bypass damaged sections of the junction from the control console.

"Ma'am Wraith fleet is emerging from hyperspace off our port bow." The helmsmen stated.

They all turned to face the viewscreen as the Wraith fleet came out of FTL; it was truly a frightening sight for those who hadn't faced the Wraith in the past. The size of the Wraith forces hadn't truly diminished since the start of the war years ago. Massive vessels kilometres in size appeared, their insect like hull armour gleamed dimly in the open void.

The outer layer of the hull bristled with weapon arrays and a number of sensory nodes designed to track and destroy ships which dared to face the Wraith ships. But the Dreadnought was the most daunting of all; its size was about 3 times the size of Atlantis, capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of warriors.

It was shaped into 9 great spines, with the middle being shaped like a hook which arched downwards, its length was lifelike and organic in design, crafted to savagely rip into enemy vessels without remorse. The dozens of smaller ships around it were immaculate in comparison to the capital ship.

"This is going to get really fucking ugly." Sheppard stated profoundly.

"Yeah it is." McKay agreed.

Amanda then stated. "Enemy capital ship has charged weapons and is firing. Brace for impact."

The Arcturus violently shook as dozens of energy blasts began to slam into the outer shields. Carter was almost knocked off balance, but realigned herself and took to the bridge command chair. "Amanda what's the status on our weapon arrays?"

"We have all primary weapons active; I have already begun to return fire, however the Wraith Dreadnought is dispersing and absorbing the impacts fairly consistently." Amanda stated in a matter of fact tone as she worked to overcome the Wraith's larger capital vessel.

"McKay can you get our FTL back online even for a brief moment?" Carter asked.

McKay ran through the controls and functions for the FTL and replied in a rather agitated fashion.

"Not fast enough, calculating and reconstructing the main drive matrix isn't something I can do on a whim here."

"But can we go into FTL even for a short jump? We don't need the absolute 100% on the drives; just give me anything to work with here." Carter asked him.

Eli and McKay took a few moments to run through a couple of simulated short jumps. McKay found nothing. "I can't the drive wouldn't get us as far as the outskirts of the system and that's assuming it doesn't overload and send us into oblivion…" He mumbled the last bit as he tried to reconfigure the controls.

"There's just not enough power being redirected to the control matrix to allow a stable FTL jump." Eli said aloud.

McKay added. "Exactly meaning any jump we make would either just end in failure or we all die in the blink of an eye."

"Yes, but you're not adding one factor." Eli stated as he looked over the controls for the multi-dimensional drive. "We can channel the ZPG and use the multi-dimensional drive to channel power right into the control matrix that should give us a short burst, though where we'd end up is probably going to depend on how long the jump is."

McKay exclaimed in response. "No it doesn't we don't have any idea what'll happen if we plug the MDD right into the control matrix, sure we have a 10 percent chance of making a successful jump anywhere, but we have a 60 percent chance of unknown variables." He stated in response.

"Better than being ripped to pieces by Wraith." Sheppard stated his opinion as he looked over the battle report filing in.

"General, Captain Caldwell is on the line." The com officer stated.

"Patch him through." Carter acknowledged.

The familiar voice of the Captain came through albeit tensely.

"General we've done all we could, we've received damage to our hyperdrive, secondary shield arrays are down and we have breaches on 3 decks, primary armaments are holding up, but not for much longer if these Stalkers keep pounding us like this."

The sounds of battle continued to come through on Calwell's end, Carter knew that this was not going to end well either way. "Understood Captain, we're exploring our options right now, we've narrowed down our decision, hold on for a bit longer."

"Understood ma'am." Caldwell stated as he got back to the fight.

Haley who had been busy trying to coordinate the fleet came over the CIC com.

"Ma'am, I've given it some thought and I suggest we follow along with Eli's plan, we cannot maintain this position for much longer. The Ulysses and Yamato have been both forced back to our perimeter for shield recovery, there are still too many Wraith vessels for us to handle, strategically this is not a matter of holding on much longer." Jennifer stated in a meticulous fashion.

Carter asked Sheppard. "What do you think?"

Sheppard looked around from the display on the bridge and stated. "Can't hurt us anymore than sticking around ma'am."

Carter came down to the decision.

"Alright, we're going with Eli's plan." She said aloud.

"Jennifer order all ships to close formation around the Arcturus, when we jump we'll pull the fleet through." She ordered the commander.

Jennifer understood and began to relay orders to the fleet. "All ships close formation prepare for mass FTL jump."

"Eli how much time do you need?" Carter asked the young prodigy.

Eli gave her a slightly strained look as he calculated the timing.

"About another couple of minutes but I'll probably have to go and manually link the MDD to the hyperdrive." He replied.

"Okay, get going." Carter said before looking at McKay. "You go as well, try and help Eli get the jury rig done ASAP." McKay was about to reply to the order but held his tongue and nodded.

"Okay, but if anything goes wrong it's not my problem." McKay sighed as he followed after Eli.

The ship shuddered once more as heavy particle beams from the Wraith ships continued to pound away from the outside. Carter hoped that this was worth the gamble, Sheppard who had been eagerly looking over the engagement from a display asked Carter.

"You know if this doesn't work…"

"I know, but better we try something, I have my faith in Eli and McKay they haven't let us down in the past." Carter stated.

"Well aside from McKay blowing up a whole star system and Eli who managed to cause everyone to go invisible last time." Sheppard added thoughtfully.

"Right aside from those things, I'm fairly confident they wouldn't cause any more trouble especially now." Carter tried to reassure him as much as herself.

Outside of the ships beams from the various plasma beam cannons continued to fire out directed energy blasts against the Wraith ships continuing to assault the human ships. Each beam was substantially more powerful than Wraith weapons, though they lacked in volume of fire which the Wraith had plenty of.

This engagement was merely to wither down the defences to close distance and board the human fleet. Of course that was assuming they didn't just scuttle the ships rather than let them fall into the hands of the Wraith. Down in engineering, McKay and Eli worked away linking the FTL drive directly into the MDD.

It wasn't long before they had jury rigged the machines together, though the unpredictability of the two machines working together was problematic at best. Eli called over the com.

"General we're ready to activate the drive, though I'm not sure what'll happen as soon as we activate it."

"Right, we've gathered the fleet into the range of our FTL that should be enough. On my order execute the jump." Carter stated.

Eli and McKay stood together in engineering, with Radek and the other various members of the technical crew working around trying to make sure everything was in working order.

"Okay in 3, 2, 1…" Carter counted down.

"Activating MDD." Eli said aptly before pressing the button on the console.

Once the drive was active the ship began to shudder, at first subtly and then it increased. The fleet around the Arcturus was engulfed in what could be described as a bubble of light, all-encompassing, the battle between the humans and the Wraith suddenly stopped as the brightness eclipsed everything.

On the bridge Carter braced herself in the command chair while Sheppard had magnetised his shoes to the deck of the ship and held onto the display table waiting for what was to come. What should have been a simple jump had suddenly gotten much more interesting. After this point everyone passed out.

XXXXX

One hour later…

McKay heard the distinct tinnitus ringing away as he awoke; he had been through reality jumps before, but multi-dimensional jumps? Ok that was new. He managed to get onto his feet as others did likewise, of course it seemed most of everyone else was already up. "Hey guys, I feel like someone took a sledgehammer to my head." He groaned.

Eli who had stumbled away from the console and was picking himself up from the ground stated. "Likewise."

Radek who was busy checking over the systems across the ship said.

"McKay we've made the jump I think."

"What do you mean you think?" McKay shouted as he checked the console in front of him.

Eli got back over to their console as the intercom came to life.

"This is Carter; give a full status report McKay."

McKay's transponder was still working for him to reply.

"We've got about no discernible signs of damage on the ship, though our shields look a little depleted, I can say is that the navigational systems are working just fine…" He paused as he noticed something profoundly wrong.

"Uh okay, that doesn't look right." Eli said as he peered over McKay shoulder.

"What is it?" Carter asked them in a concerned tone.

"Well from what the navigational computers indicate, we haven't moved at all." Eli said as he double checked the navigational records.

Sheppard came over the line and said. "Uh McKay you know that whole bright flash of light thing kind of felt familiar." Sheppard stated in a rather concerned tone.

"Yes I noticed it as well, but we channelled it right into the FTL drive, it's not like we used a subspace capacitor like those other idiots did." McKay said in response.

"What's going on?" Carter asked the two of them.

Eli knew what this was all about; he was the one who dealt with this problem in the past.

"McKay and I believe we might have accidently jumped into an alternate reality again."

There was a slight pause before Sheppard who had been listening said.

"McKay, you'd better be joking." The colonel said in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Okay let's not jump the gun just yet, we haven't verified anything." McKay tried to defend himself. "Eli was the one who proposed this plan, and I simply went along with it."

Eli then said. "Well it was a calculated risk, besides if anything at least we're out of the boiler."

"Yeah but we could have just jumped into the frying pan." Sheppard muttered over the coms.

Samantha who had been thinking over the situation wasn't so familiar about how inter-reality travel worked, only by so much could be assumed not much was put into actual practical application of dimension jumping. She then recalled.

"McKay, didn't you and Eli both work on the alternate reality Daedalus when it arrived over Atlantis last time? I recall you managed to get it to send you back."

Eli who was busy checking over the recorded dimensional jump then said.

"I think that might be a problem."

"What's wrong now?" Sam quipped.

McKay checked over the logs and he compared it to their records on the Daedalus from the alternate reality. "You've got to be kidding me." McKay said as he checked over the comparison.

"What is it McKay?" Sheppard said in a demanding tone.

"We-." Eli was cut off as McKay said. "We've compared our data on the alternate reality Daedalus and our jump, they don't match up."

"Why what's different than before?" Sheppard asked them.

Eli took over to explain. "The drive on the alternate reality Daedalus had a smaller drive which didn't link itself into the hyperdrive, meaning the jump was usually a systemic one, what we just experienced was more like a blind jump through subspace, we could have ended up anywhere."

Sheppard then asked in a rather sheepish tone. "Why not just flip the drive back in reverse like last time?"

Sam finally got what had happened and said.

"It's not possible because we don't know where we just jumped to; it's like a point of origin to destination."

"And we didn't input our destination." McKay said in a rather panicked tone.

Eli then interjected. "You know you really need to calm down McKay, we can make it back, it's just really figuring out how."

McKay snapped. "Oh easy for you to say Mr Optimistic I'm a boy genius, we've got no way to determine our point of origin from our jump, for all we know this reality could have flying cars and penguins for people."

"That'd sound weirdly interesting." Sheppard added thoughtfully.

"Uh, okay back to our primary cause for concern. Where are we right now?" Samantha asked.

The two physicists looked around before Amanda came over the intercom.

"Ma'am I have just completed overall system repairs, no critical systems have been compromised and I have had the opportunity to use our stellar cartographer to compare stellar locations within the surrounding space."

"And where exactly did we end up?" Sheppard inquired as he prepared for the worst.

Amanda, who had been based off Amanda Perry of the UEF Scientific Research Department in Bathurst Australia, chimed in a surprised tone.

"We have arrived approximately within 5 parsecs of the Sol System."

"5 parsecs of Earth? How's that possible? I thought the reality jumps limit us to exactly where we are in space. It shouldn't have moved us." Sam said aloud.

Jennifer who had been in the CIC for the majority of the conversation added her hypothesis.

"We were linked to the hyperdrive when we made the dimensional jump, for all we know it might have sent us anywhere in space, we're lucky we just ended up so close to this reality's version of Earth."

"True, but we don't know what's going on in this reality, for all we know Earth doesn't even exist." McKay stated.

"Which would be bad, since we don't know how long we're going to be stuck here. And a nice place to sit down and figure out a means to getting back to our reality would be preferable." Sheppard suggested.

"Agreed, of course if this Earth is habited, we may need to be careful, we don't exactly know what might be going on the planet, and we don't need to cause an incident." Sam advised.

Amanda interjected in her usual passive tone.

"Ma'am may I suggest we repair the hyperdrive while someone is sent to scout out this reality's Earth? I have also Captain Caldwell on the other line; he hasn't been entirely informed on the current situation."

Carter understood. "Ok, I'll speak to Caldwell, Jennifer get the fleet into a defensive perimeter, stand down alert across the fleet. Amanda who do you need to go and begin repairs on our secondary systems?"

Amanda replied curtly. "I shall require Dr Eli to help in repairs to the crystal arrays located near the aft junctions; I do not require Dr McKay's assistance any time soon." She smiled as McKay interjected.

"Hey I can be just as useful." He said in an indignant tone for the sly remark.

Sheppard decided to jump in.

"I'm going to scout out Sol, just make sure we're not going to impose on any business going on there."

Sam asked him. "Do you want to take a team with you and a Jumper?"

Sheppard replied curtly. "Don't plan on taking a team for this one, besides Jumpers aren't really that hard to see especially when coming out of hyperspace, I'm going to take my Kestrel for a quick trip." He said as he made his way out of the bridge.

He was about to leave as Sam said to him. "I know you have authority to take individual action since the UEFF recognised you as a separate division of the military, but you still report to me. Before you do anything rash, contact me first before starting a war." She warned the Colonel in a somewhat mocking tone.

"Understood, and don't worry since when do I start trouble?" He asked her in a mocking tone.

McKay knew immediately what he'd think but held down his satire response. As Sheppard headed down, the rest of the crew got back to what they needed to do. It was going to be a long day.

XXXXX

Location: UEFF Arcturus- Hangar 15-A

Sheppard reached the changing rooms before going into the hangar, he knew that it was best to be suited for the occasion; he entered into the pristine clean gun metal room and stepped into a cubicle marked with his name. As he stepped in, he activated a holographic display on one side of the cubicle which brought up his gear selection.

He selected his space flight gear with atmospheric add-ons; he knew that if the alternate Earth was habitable it was best to be prepared for a short trip through the atmosphere. As the selection was completed, the cubicle began to hum, a section of the cubicle was highlighted and indicated in a diagram to stretch his arms and legs out so it could attach the gear.

He complied with a deep breath and closed his eyes as the cubicle suddenly glowed brightly; he knew the process the machine was molecularly forming his gear over his body. It didn't take any longer than a minute before he felt the weight of his gear weighing down on his body. He opened his eyes and the lighting returned to normal.

The panel then said in bold words [Process Complete], he stepped out of the cubicle and checked over his suit, making sure everything was in place; he turned to face a nearby mirror which stood at the end of the room and did a quick look over. His matte black and red armour dully shone in the lighting, he got a good look at his headgear, and then he made his way out.

He opened the doors and entered into the hangar bay where his fighter was being stored, technicians rushed around to tend to hundreds of vehicles and crafts, but they dared not touch the Kestrel Sheppard owned unless he had authorised them to do so. Sheppard's bird was a Kestrel FV-105 series multi-role fighter/mobile suit; it was constructed 5 years ago in response to the danger of attack on Earth from the remaining System Lords.

The Kestrel is a 27.4m long fighter, its wings were switchblade like which tucked into the sides of the fighter to allow compact storage, it was built with VTOL capabilities and an anti-gravity generator to enable quick deployment even on the ground. The Kestrel was constructed using various materials, from trinium, tritanium, carbon plates and a number of incredibly sturdy and lightweight materials.

The Kestrel features various upgrades from its cousin fighters the FX-301, 02, 03 and the more recent 322. The Kestrel was integrated with energy shields, polarised armour, internal honeycomb construction, making the Kestrel the most advanced fighter created to date. One of the more distinguishable features of the Kestrel is the ability to mount additional equipment; such has 180mm rail guns, a single ARC-V15 energy lance and a number of heavy weapons.

The fighter was developed to launch long distance assaults on ships, bases, outposts. But it also acted as a scouting vessel for fleets, and also performed pre-emptive strikes on high valued targets. Thus the Kestrel is one of the foremost advanced and dangerous of its class, being able to function in all sorts of environments against usually very low odds.

And then there was the MS system which was inbuilt into the Kestrel series of fighters, of course not many were built since the costs for manufacturing all of the parts and equipment not to mention the drives were incredibly expensive compared to a normal fighter or standard MS unit. His one was built to his specifications and well thanks to a certain Japanese teen that was hyped on caffeine.

Sheppard loved his fighter thanks to all of the upgrades and additions he had made to it over the years. His Kestrel could be mounted with his own assortment of weapons, including an external booster frame, something the UCAF had given to the UEF in its fight against the Wraith's superior numbers. There was also the fact that his own fighter had been tailored to his own needs.

A control interface, stealth field projectors, an emergency mini-transporter in the event the fighter is either destroyed or suffers critical damage. Then there were the other additions made by him, a storage locker for weapons and equipment, ion fusion cells for his gear in the event he needed to repair something, and also the nice leather chair he added in for his cockpit.

He stepped up the side step ladder and into the cockpit, he found it rather comfortable to be back in the pilot seat again of the Kestrel, it had been a long month since he had the chance to pilot his fighter. Combat was becoming sporadic back in Pegasus; it was kind of boring now that most of the Wraith were digging in for the long haul.

As he interfaced with his fighter, he was greeted by one of the engineers from the crew who was clearing the way for him to launch. Sheppard identified the engineer as a Vaunian, his white pale hair and yellow/gold tinted eyes gave it away pretty easily since Vaunians were the only ones to have this particular trait.

Once the engineer had completed his check, he got onto a console and activated a crane to move Sheppard Kestrel right to the launching catapult. Sheppard waved the engineer off as he locked the flight gear to the catapult. He linked his com set to the ship and called to the bridge.

"Alright I've finished my pre-flight; I'm ready to take my bird out."

Carter replied over the com.

"Understood Sheppard, but remember you have 24 hours to report or we'll send someone to check in on you, for now we're holding here. Check in at least every hour or so, or when you reach your destination."

"Understood ma'am." Sheppard said as he prepared to launch.

In front of him he watched as the hangar bay doors opened, the containment fields held the atmosphere inside and let fighters pass through. As the catapult finished charging, Sheppard indicated for launch. "This is Nova-1 heading out." He said as he hit the ignition for the engines.

His sublight came to life and shot the Kestrel forwards, the gees he should have been pulling were absent as he accelerated into open space, he could see the stars open up to him, all shone so brightly. He was glad something's in the universe never changed. He grasped the controls and navigated his fighter above the Arcturus.

As he prepared for his jump to hyperspace, he took a moment to look over the Arcturus itself. The Arcturus was as impressive as any other vessel in the UEF fleet, albeit this was essentially the second largest vessel in Earth's fleet. 3.6km in length, and a bit over a kilometre in height, not to mention wide enough to fit a few warships in between, the Arcturus was truly a sight for sore eyes.

Arcturus was created using advanced materials and blueprints of Ancient warships, all obtained on an abandoned Ancient outpost some light years on the edge of the galaxy. The ship was created from a number of new techniques in ship construction all aimed to making highly durable warships to fend off future assaults on Earth and to defend against more hostile enemies.

Sheppard kept in view the fleet, consisting of 18 warships of varying sizes, he loved how the designs they started out with were horribly boxy and bulky and now they were just boxy and streamlined. He watched as he passed the Daedalus' aft, he admitted, the Daedalus' design was a lot smoother than the other ships created.

As the Kestrel reached the designated jump point, he input the location of Sol and then activated the hyperdrive, in a flash the event horizon of a formed within a few meters of the Kestrel. Sheppard was pulled through hyperspace, he was greeted by the brilliance of light which was hyperspace, and he estimated the jump would take about a couple of minutes.

The UEFF had equipped every ship with Asgard upgraded hyperdrives which could easily make a jump across a hundred thousand light years in just under a day. It was pretty useful having advanced alien allies to help things along, as well as having friends who could upgrade a lot of these things as well.

His Kestrel was built with an enhanced hyperdrive, capable of flying faster than the standard UEFF hyperdrive; of course he paid for the modifications since it wasn't technically part of the UEFF's sanctioned upgrades. Sheppard spent the good part of the couple of minutes going over his own thoughts.

'Over 6 years in the service and not a penny for his pension ironically, since the UEF had changed the economic situation a few years ago and now there's not technical currency in existence. Well at least they cover healthcare.' He thought to himself.

As his Kestrel reached its destination, he grasped the controls and pulled down on the control lever and a pulled it back; he activated the neural interface and decelerated the fighter. Within moments his fighter pulled back into real space, his view passed from the vibrant lights of hyperspace to open space.

He could see the stars around him, he activated the control interface to map out the star system, and he was a little surprised to see that everything was practically identical. As his fighter turned about he was greeted by a welcoming sight, the big blue sphere he called home, of course this wasn't his Earth.

It took him a moment to notice the obvious differences in this Earth and his own, there were 3 large orbital elevators, at least from what he could see, but on top of that there were a massive array of solar collectors which ran in a ring. It was an impressive sight, since the UEF had also managed to create orbital elevators like them and also build a solar array, but of smaller size, and also since the rings were more like docking ports for ships coming and going in the Sol system.

But the rings weren't the only difference, Sheppard did a double over just to make sure, but there were no signs of the UEFF Orbital Defence Platforms ODPs, which guarded Earth from alien attack. There was also the absence of the Titan super dock/complex which functioned as the Earth's primary spaceborne base of operations.

No signs of Subspace sensor networks, or the new satellite network meant to communicate with all of Earth's colonies, and there was an absence of the Mars, Jupiter, and Asteroid colonies, which should have numbered over 36 by now, but there were only a few on his multi-spectral and spatial sensors.

'Yeah, definitely not my reality what else is new?' He thought to himself.

The Kestrel didn't take very long to reach geosynchronous orbit and begin its sensor sweeps, Sheppard had a feeling that as much as he was going to scan, he'd probably find lots of interest. But undoubtedly he couldn't confirm anything till he went down onto the planet himself and checked it out.

He kept his eye on the sensor sweeps as he brought up a geographical map of the planet; practically everything looked about the same, with some very small differences and also the strange fact that there was a sudden lack of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. He assumed that the people had changed to more environmentally safe means of transportation and power generation.

Back on his Earth, the planet had been steadily withdrawing the need for fossil fuels, not to mention the atmospheric conditioners being used to clean the atmosphere and rebuild the ozone layer of the planet. Of course there was some opposition thanks to so many car corporations and BP pushing to keep their finances since the mass reformation of Earth's economy.

He would imagine in a few more years his Earth would look not to different from this one, but it was only then he noticed something, he was receiving a variety of radio and communication signals from across the planet. It took the Kestrel's internal systems to begin processing it all in a few moments but he was greeted by the sounds of people chatting across the planet.

'Huh guess something's never change.' He thought to himself in a humoured way as he checked on the sports of this planet, he hoped that football back in the States hadn't changed much on this planet.

However as much as he wanted to be watching Canadian footballers get their pride kicked in by the good old USA, he noted that there was a sudden alert, he received what was a live feed from what looked like a Japanese news station. From what his universal translator told him, it was pretty serious.

He changed channels and tuned into the Japanese news station.  
"Let's see what we have here." He muttered to himself as he was welcomed by the sight of a standoff.

A Japanese woman in teal coloured clothes stood on an elevated position, her face showed a stern and serious expression as she began.  
"Today at eleven this morning a civilian ferry was intercepted by two large cargo ships passing between Kyushu and mainland Japan, the cargo ships boxed the civilian ferry from two sides and revealed the presence of mobile suits. The people behind the standoff have stated that they are members of the European terrorist network La Eden, the 'voice of the people', in response to the appearance of Celestial Being and their armed interventions." The reporter paused to allow the cameraman take a look at the scene behind her.

A dozen suits were visible, 6 on the cargo ships, there were very large bulky machines with what looked like AA batteries mounted onto their backs and 2 slightly smaller machines with what looked like spears in their hands, 6 were in the air, each looked like airplanes with legs and arms, but rather odd looking.

Sheppard had a hatred of terrorists, since the events of the extremist Christian movement Terra Firma which committed many acts of open violence against off world humans and alien allies, the United Earth Federation dealt with them a long time ago, but the effects are still being felt years after the incidents.

He wouldn't mind kicking some sense into those La Eden fellows with his Kestrel; he still had a fully armed fighter/suit to go into a foray, not to mention the dual 180mm anti-ship rail guns mounted underneath the body of the Kestrel could do some serious damage to anything unfortunate to be sitting in their sights.

He continued to watch the report as the newswoman stated. "As you can see, the current standoff hasn't changed since 3 hours ago and mounting tensions have raised concerns of the Union task force currently deployed about a possible sortie if the situation deteriorates." She finished with.  
"For the time being the members of La Eden has yet to make any further comments and has yet to make any demands aside from the demands for Celestial Being to cease its armed intervention. Celestial Being has yet to respond to such demands and has not made an appearance."

The channel changed back to the news room studio where the people began to discuss the concerns of what was transpiring; Sheppard felt that if he intervened he would undoubtedly get into trouble for messing around in the affairs of another planet. On the other hand, what the hell would be the point of recon if he couldn't bother going down and checking things out himself?

He smiled at the thought as he brought his fighter into a sharp angle and began a short sublight turn, he felt happy enough to get something to shoot at once again, or at least get shot at. 'Wow I must be bored.' He thought to himself in a sarcastic fashion.

'Carter's going to definitely chew my ass out for this.' He laughed inwardly at the thought of what the General would do once he reported this mess.

XXXXX

Time: 2:14PM

Date: 3/11/2306

Location: Japan, Kyushu- Union Territory

The standoff between the members of La Eden and the Union response was rapid but also cautious, the MS units assigned had been put at a mid-distance, within artillery range of the tanks on the ground, but outside range of the standard ground units. There was also the fact that the teams on the ground had no place to set up aside from open fields along the coast.

There wasn't enough space to move the suits into a full perimeter and had to make do with whatever they had available. The naval response had been somewhat faster, but none of the ships could approach within 10 kilometres of the hijacked civilian ferry and the hostage takers. The initial standoff began a bit over 3 hours ago, but no one's made a move as of yet.

But tension was beginning to mount as further Union suits arrived, there was also the fact that Celestial Being had yet to respond to the threat of the hostage takers, and it wouldn't be long before things got bloody. The Union forces had been planning on launching an attack via specialist naval teams, but they realised that the hostage takers had set a series of sonar buoys along the bottom of each of their ships each rigged with explosives.

It was looking as though they didn't know what to do, but a decision had to be made and soon. For the Union officer who had been sent as part of the emergency response force, this situation was undoubtedly serious, the tedious position that many officers would rather avoid getting into was put into his hands.

He had about 24 MS units within range of the hijackers, but the terrain was unfavourable for the suits to be positioned, and any place clear would be too close to the coast for the terrorists to see. He wondered if these people had covered all aspects of their position, he knew that they probably couldn't, but likely had some sort of assurance to ensure they didn't lose their only advantage.

The civilian ship remained boxed in between the terrorist controlled cargo vessels, each carrying a pair of Tierens undoubtedly stolen from the HRL and sold on the black market. He gritted his teeth in frustration, how could anyone not have seen this coming? He turned back to the current scenario and noted that the enemy suits were switching shifts to avoid exhausting their pilots.

He figured he might be able to put them back on edge, but he didn't want to provoke them into doing anything too rash in case they might harm the civilians, he had a tactic in mind which might pull this off, but it might take too long to implement and execute since the hostage takers had sent their demands over 3 hours ago, doing anything now might just escalate their situation.

The seasoned officer sat back in his command chair observing the situation before him, he was sure he could find a means of exploiting some sort of weakness that the terrorists of La Eden had. But it seemed fate had something else to give him. A nearby personnel manning the communications centre reported in.

"Colonel, I've received an emergency contact from the low orbital command centre, they say that they've detected what looks like an aircraft entering into the Earth's atmosphere…" He exclaimed in a slightly excited tone.

"What? Did they specify what sort of aircraft it is?" The colonel inquired in a calm but serious tone.

"No sir, they just said that it was coming in fast, its faster than anything they've seen before, but its descent takes it within reach of Kyushu, it will be arriving soon." The communications officer stated.

The officer looked back at the control centre with various personnel looking around in surprise; the Colonel turned his attention to a nearby map and inquired. "Can you get an exact estimate as to where the fighter will appear?" He asked the com officer.

The officer spent a minute or so before he turned back and exclaimed.  
"At the current speed and angle of descent, they estimate that the fighter will arrive very shortly from a south west position, it's probably-…" Alarms began to blare as the response force received a report from their surrounding persons.

"Sir incoming object at hyper velocity speeds, it's not slowing down and it will reach us within the next minute, of that I'm sure." Another officer stated in a particularly excited fashion.

The colonel's complexion changed from a calm and collected person to one held in surprise, he took a look at the estimate descent and arrival of the fighter, if the calculations were correct then the fighter in question was coming in at Mach 24 speeds, how this is possible definitely made the colonel wonder if this really was just a fighter.

XXXXX

Kinue Crossroad was a usually busy woman, focusing on facts and following her heart when she needed to, she always accepted a good challenge when she faced one, but what got her was the fear for her younger brother, Saji. She looked out over the ocean from her spot on the edge of the coast; she could feel her heart beating rapidly.

'Please be safe Saji.' She thought to herself in a worried fashion.

When she heard about the hostage situation she asked her boss to immediately release her from her previous research into the history of Celestial being and into watching out for her family. She was here and now, waiting for anything to happen, anything which would result in her brother being safe was good for her, as selfish as it might seem.

She sat on a nearby stool watching the situation closely, her cameraman and her partner tended to check up on her occasionally to see if she was doing well, she responded in the same fashion as she always did for the last hour. She hoped that this would be resolved soon; she wanted to see Saji back home safe.

But something caught her attention, a short series of what sounded like alarms rang out from behind her, she and many spectators who had joined to see the situation unfold turned about as the Union military began to move around, it seemed they were trying to do something. It couldn't be an attack on the terrorists, but something else, something had grabbed their attention.

XXXXX

Location: Earth- Low Orbit

Along the solar array which provided limitless amounts of energy for the various nations and countries across the world, the transport ship of Celestial Being moved within the shadow of the array. Ptolemy travelled with a silent purpose through the empty vacuum of space; aboard the ship the crew was less than silent.

Sumeragi Lee Noriega the strategic analyst and planner for Celestial Being watched at the current state of affairs with her fellow members in the briefing room. Sumeragi was in deep though as she watched the tension boiling over, her fellow crew seemed also quite serious about what was happening.

Lasse was being rather more vocal about his thoughts on what was happening.  
"Damn it, isn't there anything we can do?"

"Not at the moment apparently." Lichty who was also in the room stated.

"How long do you think it'll take for Setsuna and Lockon to reach Kyushu?" Chris asked in a worried tone.

It was a certain pink haired young woman who answered Chris's question.  
"Exia and Dynames will be arriving within the hour."

Sumeragi added.  
"Let's just hope it's before the Union decides to start shooting."

As they continued to look on below, they seemed to notice something; the live report by the Japanese news switched over to the reporter once more. Her face was in a panic as she exclaimed.  
"Breaking news, an unknown mobile suit has engaged La Eden!"

XXXXX

Sheppard had always been good at knocking things and people off their perches that includes a large monkey like creature he ran into on AXC-903, which was for all intents and purposes a pretty crazy shot. He had his rail guns pointed straight at the suits sitting right atop the first cargo ship; of course no one could see him just yet, but he could definitely see them.

He was still about 10 seconds out from the hijackers when he locked the rail guns on the first target and let loose, his 180mm let out a deafening blast as the massive shells exited their barrels at Mach 42 speeds, of course the were higher levels at which he could have fired at, but 42 seemed fine for dealing with an enemy who didn't seem too advanced.

His shots tore through the air like a molecular resonance blade through a bar of butter, which is overkill for a bar of butter. The round left a shockwave in its following, the ocean below the hyper velocity projectiles parted as they passed, leaving a mini tsunami in their wake. Anyone nearby would only hear the sound of the projectiles passing seconds after they hit their targets.

The terrorist suits on the first cargo ship had barely any time to even register what happened as the two projectiles slammed into them, from the outside the suits looked distorted as their cockpits turned inside out and the back of the machine spike outwards like a cone before the shockwave hit.

People on the ferry were nearly knocked off as the suits simultaneously exploded, but not from being hit by the explosive projectiles but the shockwave which followed quite literally pulled the machines to pieces with the added kinetic force of the rounds. As the first suits were smashed to pieces, the other suits stationed exactly parallel had only a fraction of a second before they two met almost similar fates.

The backs of the other suits received the remaining force of the shells from Sheppard's 180mm, they didn't receive as much of the kinetic force as the first suits, but they did receive the explosive compounds of the 180mm shells themselves. The two machines distorted partially but then exploded in a vibrant plume for fire, molten metal and shrapnel blowing outwards in the opposite direction of the explosion.

The remaining suits which La Eden had on the ships broke off as they panicked, they couldn't even see what had struck their AA defences, but anything capable of blasting away 4 suits in the blink of an eye was undoubtedly lethal. Sheppard grinned as he pushed his Kestrel with the afterburners and pulled his fighter into a corkscrew.

He knew exactly how to draw the remaining terrorist suits away from the civilian ferry and knock as many of them out of skies faster than they could cuss aloud in terror. He drove the Kestrel between the fleeing suits and narrowly avoided striking any of them with the Kestrel to avoid any unfortunate collisions with the ferry below.

His stunt worked as his fighter screamed by at tremendous speeds between the enemy mobile suits. The enemy suits had only registered the wake of his fighter's hypersonic boom as he passed them. It didn't take long for them to regain some semblance of order as they began to open fire at him. He didn't really need to dodge as much since his Kestrel was far faster than their ability to adjust their aim.

He pulled his Kestrel upwards overhead of the enemy suits and decided to make the battlefield his, he had a wolfish smile on his face when he pulled the controls for the suit transformation, he knew it was kind of flashy in terms of entrance, but first impressions are always important. His HUD highlighted his suit's rapid transformation as he descended upon his enemies.

The Kestrel bent and twisted around as it transformed, its limbs out stretching as it took its true form, the 180mm guns mounted onto the shoulders of the suit, and the forward rail guns turned into a single large assault rifle like form which was just as lethal, but what defined the suit so well was the large left hand shield bracer which hummed to life, of course it wasn't just a shield bracer.

"Time to dance ladies!" He shouted out loud as his suit pile drove onto the unfortunate terrorists below.

XXXXX

Kinue couldn't believe what she was seeing, but there it was, the mysterious assailant of the terrorists was a mobile suit, but not only that it was a Gundam of all things. It was astounding another one of these machines existed, not only that, but it was assumed by many people Celestial Being would disregard the lives of innocents and simply continue armed interventions.

It seemed that this was their response, at least on the outside, but as a reporter and an investigator she knew that something was off about this whole thing. Kinue though was at least glad that things had taken a change, she turned back to her camera man and announced.  
"A new Gundam has appeared! It's begun to attack the members of La Eden, at the moment it looks as though the battle is in favour of the Gundam."

Kinue finished up and simply let the cameraman continue to broadcast while she watched, anxious about whether or not Saji was okay. But another thought came to mind as she watched the machine fighting against the members of La Eden. 'This machine isn't emitting light.' She noted as the jets of the suit blazed to life.

XXXXX

Saji had hoped that today would be just a normal sunny day for an excursion, it was supposed to be a full day of seminars and discussions about future prospects for students from various countries and nations. He was hoping to get Louise to make up her mind on what sort of career she wanted.

She was vague about what she wanted to do after, but they agreed to meet again in space one day. Sadly after the seminars had finished they had this little disaster follow them right through, he never imagined that terrorists would utilise this opportunity to come along and strike with such zeal over Celestial Being.

But this thing was expected since a lot of people disliked the organisation for attacking various nations and powers with resources, this was probably something that was bound to happen sooner or later. Saji's thoughts were interrupted as he felt the familiar grasp of Louise next to him. He turned his head over as she looked around in worry.

"Hey Saji, do you think everything will be alright?" She asked him in an anxious tone.

He hesitated in his response. "It'll be alright, I'm sure that we'll be fine." He tried to reassure her. "Maybe a Gundam might come in and save us." He said thoughtfully.

Louise knew he was bad at lying and also at reassurances.  
"Not funny Saji, I want to see mama…" She mumbled in a worried tone.

He could tell from her expression and of those all around him that the situation might escalate and they could all end up dead. He shivered with the thought of death lingering nearby, he could hear the dull roar of the Helions floating up above the ferry, and the distinct roar was louder than the ocean which was swaying around them.

There had been no update as to their situation aside from the ship's captain making an announcement here and there for the passengers to remain calm. He had a feeling that more people were hoping for a rescue than for any further reassurances. But help was undoubtedly on the way, there was no doubt about that, whether it came before things got really bad was the thing.

As Saji turned back to his own thoughts, there was a brief pause before the ocean seemed to twist around the ship, and someone shouted on the PA.  
"He what's that?"

Everyone's head perked upwards to the PA mere moments before the whole ship turned to chaos. He and Louise who were on the second floor of the ship suddenly were tossed to their side as a bone shaking explosion followed, Saji face planted the deck hard. Louise wasn't long behind but landed on top of his head.

"Oww…" He muffled out in pain.

The moment of shock didn't last as another explosion followed, this time it was on the other side of the ship; everyone was tossed again to the other side of the ship. Saji was lifted off the deck with enough force to knock the air out of him; he landed on his back with his head against Louise's chest.

"Saji!" Louise managed to shout out as she landed on her backside.

Saji realised what happened and tried hastily to get off of her, but that was easier said than done, people on the ship were screaming in fear and it looked like people were about to start jumping ship, but someone on the PA managed to restore order.  
"Everyone stay calm, stay on the boat, we weren't hit by weapons fire." Some crewman said aloud.

'Not weapons fire? What's going on then?' Saji thought to himself.

"Please remain aboard, there's currently a battle being fought right above the ship, it's unsafe to be attempting to leave the ship." The ship's crewman stated before closing the line.

People seemed to calm down a bit, Louise looked a bit relieved.  
"Thank goodness, help's arrived."

Saji wasn't so sure about help, from how things started; he had a feeling that somehow that being caught in the middle of the battle without knowing what was going on was not a good thing. He managed to get back up into an upright position and helped Louise back up to her feet. He asked her.  
"Are you alright?"

Louise dusted herself off and replied.  
"Yeah…" She took in a breath before adding.  
"Come on we should see what's going on."

"Huh?" Saji perplexed.

"It sounds as if help's arrived, come on, we should see what's going on…" She tugged at his hands and pulled him to the nearby stairs leading to the third deck.

"Wait, I don't think…" He didn't get a chance to add anything as the wash of jets drowned out his concern.

XXXXX

Sheppard was pleased; his enemies weren't as slow as he took them to be, the enemy's suits managed to break formation around the ferry since they were sitting ducks if they stayed where they were. His arrival spooked them alright; they seemed to panic with the initial counterattack, firing off their weapons in a sporadic display in a desperate attempt to hit the Kestrel.

He made short work with driving two suits back and slicing them to pieces, his suit's speed happened to be far greater than that of his opponents and had proven far more difficult to hit, their panic did subside as they found their sense of direction and tried to predict his movements. He admitted that they had the right idea, but they were better off with just flying in a coordinated formation rather than just hovering in a tight bundle.

There were still 6 suits left and he was going to take his time getting rid of them, he smiled as he twisted his suit above the crowd of enemy suits. They tried to aim at him upwards, but found that he was in the middle of the sun, their visual recognition would be a little more difficult, but not as hard to just shoot in his general direction.

Sheppard dodged the shots with precise speed; his internal sensors gave him the predicted path of each shot and angles usually giving him the ability to go right through without much trouble. He came down right in the middle of the group at supersonic speeds, before they could intercept him, he was in their midst.

4 of the suits tried to attack him with knives and the blunt end of their weapons, this proved to be woefully inadequate to deal any sort of damage to the Kestrel, if they ever did hit Sheppard's Kestrel.  
He managed to dodge their attacks with grace and ease, but also simultaneously inflict damage. He dodged a dagger from behind and slammed the elbow of the Kestrel into the optics of the enemy suit shattering it like glass.

The second suit that tried to attack him came at him with the blunt end of its rifle, it swung it in a downwards strike to club the Kestrel from above, it didn't get the chance as Sheppard grabbed the arm of the suit and simply tossed the machine over his shoulder and down into the ocean below at terminal velocity.

The third and fourth attackers came at him with everything that they could, he admitted that this might have worked sooner to hindering his combat capabilities if all six tried this, but the two were child's play to him. He pushed the Kestrel above the two suit's attacks and then proceeded to kick both of the suits in the head with the Kestrel's booster equipped legs.

The heads of both machines flew off as if they were soccer balls, the engines then gave out from the damage and both suits spun helplessly to the ocean to join their comrades. Sheppard found this display of hostility against him amusing; he found their combat capabilities really lacked, well this was a bit expected he really wasn't fighting Wraith here or Na'kesh.

He assumed that the group really didn't have any formal military training, or at least a couple of them did, but nowhere near the level of experience to take him head on in a battle. He felt like going over the coms to just give them hints and tips like an instructor, just to troll them for a bit, but he decided against it.

His attention turned to the last two suits, he assumed happened to be the ones in charge of the terrorist group responsible for the hijacking. Their suits were better equipped and armed than the others, so the chances were high, one was armed with a halberd and the other had modified engines capable of moving faster from what his sensors could tell.

These two had taken a defensive stance, no doubt frightened as to what Sheppard's Kestrel might have in store for them. He cracked his neck before clearing his throat and then put his suit into a martial art like stance he learnt from his subordinates back on Atlantis, he had to thank Shorty for teaching him the basics of martial arts, it helped him against a certain 7 foot giant from kicking his sorry ass half the time.

He made a hand gesture with his suit indicating to the opposing suits to attack. He wasn't disappointed by their response. The suit with the halberd came right at him, it went straight for his cockpit, to which he dodged, and then the suit with the upgraded engines began to unload its weaponry at him, while keeping out of his suit's hand's striking range.

He was sort of disappointed that he might have to resort to using his rail guns and lancer if it came to it, but crushing his enemy with his suit's own hands tended to be a lot more fun. He dodged another strike from the halberd wielding suit and countered with a hit straight to its optics and followed with a mid-air roundhouse kick.

'Chuck Norris, eat your heart out.' Sheppard mouthed as he came to face the other suit.

He was greeted by weapons fire to which he transformed his suit back to fighter mode and sped right ahead at incredible speeds, he avoided being struck and ran a full loop around his enemy's suit. He got behind with his Kestrel, the suit twisted around to try and strike him, but missed thanks to Sheppard's ability to transform and time his attacks.

His mid transformed suit lashed out with its legs as they extended and managed to plant themselves into the chest of the enemy suit, the cockpit was crushed to the point where it was crippled by the impact, but the pilot would undoubtedly be wishing for a doctor right about now. Sheppard put his fighter into hover mode; he got a moment to enjoy the view of his handiwork. He counted the suits which had had downed, and noticed one of them was missing.

It was then the sound of a piercing scream got his attention; he turned his suit about face, he caught sight of one of the other suits which he assumed was disabled, he guess his kick didn't knock the pilot down. It was the suit with the halberd which had its optics kicked to pieces, the head was a mess, but the rest of its body seemed intact.  
'The suit's main camera was out of commission but it looks like it had a secondary one.' He thought as he observed the damaged suit.

It held a young woman in its left hand; Sheppard didn't make a hasty move as the pilot of the suit shouted over the external speakers.  
"Stay right there you bastard, try making a move and I'll crush the girl." The pilot said in a serious but frightened tone.

He could tell that this pilot was doing this out of sheer terror, Sheppard had technically wiped out his buddies and left him the only one standing, and also there was the fact that the local forces had gotten a move, there were about a dozen ships now on approach and what he could tell some local mobile suits had taken up some sniping positions along the coast.

Sheppard though was already formulating a dozen methods in which he could save the girl from any harm. He figured that intimidation would work, if he decided to speak up and scare the living shit out of the pilot, but that might spook the pilot into something rash. He figured that just getting the girl out of the hands of the suit would be easier.

As the terrorist's suit attempted to make its way upwards, it kept its arm slightly stretched out with hostage in hand, the girl seemed to be shouting out aloud, but Sheppard dint really bother listening in. He just kept his suit's crosshairs trained on the enemy suit's arms; he knew the best means of dealing with this sort of problem was usually a quick sideswipe.

Thankfully he had just the thing to pull such an attack off, he waited till the suit was about a hundred meters above him, and then he activated 'them'. His internal neural interface activated and selected his tool of destruction, 2 drones armed with subspace fields detached from his hips.  
'Seek target, disable limbs.' He commanded them with his mind.

As the drones fell to the ocean below, no one else seemed to notice that they began to glow as they hit the water, to anyone it'd look like two empty canisters hit the water. The hostile suit was making a slow getaway since it had taken damage, but it was too preoccupied with holding the hostage. Sheppard prepared to make a quick exit from his Kestrel as he timed the drones exactly to the point he needed the enemy suit to level itself off at.

As it hit the point at which it intended to fly off at, the drones activated, and two streaks of light punched out of the ocean at tremendous speeds, everyone watching the scene didn't know what hit the terrorist's suit since the drones moved at near luminal speeds. In a flash the enemy suit's arms came off as if they were just cut from the body.

As the arms flew off, Sheppard opened up his cockpit and proceeded to jumping after the arm with the girl still trapped in its grasp. He figured using the Kestrel to cut the fingers off on the severed MS limb would be a bit tricky since he'd have to catch it and then slice it off with a smaller plasma cutter. He really didn't want to waste time with the cutter so he decided to just grab the girl in freefall and make it quick.

He admitted that did sound a bit opportunistic, since he was a career military officer and one with a long history of not really being a show off, and at times coming up with incredibly insane ideas for military operations. As the cockpit opened to the open air, Sheppard didn't hesitate to jump right out with his atmospheric pack attached.

It had been some time since he last used an atmospheric pack; it was refreshing to get something that wasn't a projected holographic environment. As he caught up with the severed mobile suit limb, he reached out and grasped a single digit of the severed of the hand and using his suit's armament systems he activated his molecular blade and cut into the circular joints of the digits around the girl.

In the midst of this, he didn't really notice but people were recording his freefall, as he finished cutting the girl loose, he pulled her into his arms and jumped away as quickly as possible. He did a quick scan with his visor on the girl, and noticed she had passed out, possibly due to the shock of being tossed around so much.

As he pulled away from the severed mechanised limb he made his way down to the civilian ferry below, he was amused as people below seemed to look at him as if he was superman. Of course he watched Fantastic Four more than the old DC series of Superman and fellow heroes. As he landed in a crouch on the upper deck of the civilian ferry, he was greeted by dozens of people who began to cheer him on.

His translation systems kicked in and made the distinction between Japanese and English, it seemed that they were calling him some member of an organisation which he had heard of earlier, Celestial Being. He didn't respond and merely put the exhausted girl on the deck of the ship, it was then he noticed a young man approaching, shouting the girl's name with a look of concern on his face, he was caught in the middle of the crowd.

He decided to break silence and said in a commanding tone.  
"Make way." His voice was amplified through his external speakers.

Everyone backed away immediately; he knew they probably were frightened to hell by his appearance, and his voice. He loved how the McKay decided to add in a Doctor Doom voice as part of the suit upgrades, he laughed when he first got told of the adjustments. He watched as the young man managed to get to the girl he assumed was the man's girlfriend.

"Don't worry; your friend's alive, probably going to have headaches when she gets up." Sheppard said with his Doctor Doom overlay off.

The man seemed to relax as he checked the girl's pulse, he sighed.  
"Thank goodness." He said before noticing Sheppard's presence.

The young man who was crouched next to the unconscious girl seemed to freeze on the spot with a puzzled look on his face. He managed to stutter out. "Wh-who are you?"

"Me? Well I'm the man that just saved your friend there, but on another note, I'm just someone passing through the neighbourhood." Sheppard replied in a nonchalant tone and a shrug. "But enough about that, I've gotta get going, there's a lot to do today." He said as he raised his arm into the air and signalled the Kestrel over.

He figured that there wasn't much time before local authorities started to try and catch up with him. He wasn't wrong, as 4 ships with large suits armed heavily began to approach from all sides. His Kestrel reached him in fighter mode and pulled along the ferry, he didn't waste time and boarded the fighter.

But before he left, he heard the young man ask.  
"I'm very grateful, but please tell me your name; I'd like to thank the man who saved Louise." The young man said hastily.

Sheppard felt as if what he said would undoubtedly change the history on this planet, but he didn't really see the absolute harm.  
"Name's Sheppard kid, and don't call me Mister, it makes me feel old." He joked as the canopy for the cockpit closed.

The Kestrel got high above the Ferry and then boosted off at hypervelocity speeds. Not to Sheppard's knowledge was the fact that his name would go down in history, for what was to come.

XXXXX

AN: Well that's all I could think off for a pilot chapter, this was just a short experimental idea I'm going over, and I'll probably have another story based in a different setting later. At the moment I've got other fics to work on.


	2. Chapter 2

CH2: Just Communication

XXXXX

AN: This one's going to be an interesting little chapter mainly focusing between Sheppard's little forte with Celestial Being, and also the impact of Sheppard's arrival.

XXXXX

Location: Japan- Kyushu

The streets were packed as people crowded the nearby docks where the ferry had made its safe return, police and a number of medics had arrived to greet the freed hostages, but on top of that, a number of reporters and various local journalists had come to investigate on the events which had played out.

Saji wasn't entirely comfortable being in the midst of the chaos, but he expected to be badgered since he was the one who did interact with the mysterious pilot of the Gundam like suit which had made an appearance in front of everyone. The person named Sheppard had left him with a profound impression the man wasn't so formal, or cold, sort of like sympathetic.

As to his arrival, Saji got to see the various recordings of the battle which took place between the mobile suit piloted by Sheppard and the members of La Eden, it was truly a surprise to see the machine transform so quickly, or dispose the terrorists so easily. As to whom Sheppard was, he was thankful to the man for saving Louise and helping save everyone.

But it did raise a few questions, Sheppard had nothing to indicate he was a member of Celestial Being, as a matter of fact there were people asking if that really was a Gundam and not some prototype mobile suit some country based off the Gundam. Of course this was all speculation; in Saji's opinion it was irrelevant to him.

He wondered if he'd ever run into Sheppard again. Saji's thoughts were interrupted as he heard someone call his name out. He turned his head from the nearby bench he was seated in and saw who it was. "Kinue!" Saji immediately recognised his sister.

His elder sister was attempting to reach her younger brother, but security had locked the area down, there was no one coming or going until they had done a full verification of everyone's identities since the members of La Eden might have had a few members watching over the ship prior to its hijacking.

They wanted to make sure that they didn't escape in the midst of the confusion and had been doing a full search of all the people aboard the ship. But there weren't that many people on the ship to begin with so it wouldn't take particularly long before they started letting everyone out. But for Saji, his sister was a priority.

He nudged Louise who had fallen asleep on his side; she wearily woke from her short nap.  
"Hey Louise I have to talk to Kinue for a moment could you wait for a bit?" He asked the tired young woman.

Louise nodded.  
"Okay sure." She replied in a weary tone.

Saji got up from the bench and made his way through the crowd to the nearby fence where a few security guards were doing crowd control, he managed to squeeze his way to the fence where Kinue was. His eldest sister greeted him with a look of relief on her face.  
"Saji, thank goodness you're alright."

Saji replied to his sister.  
"Yeah, I'm fine; it got pretty hectic back there." He said in a reassuring tone.

Kinue had a bit of trouble maintaining her spot since people kept shoving and pushing around the fence. Saji added.  
"We'll be out of here soon. Wait for me till we get released."

Kinue nodded before she moved away from the fence. Saji turned away from where his sister had been and walked back to where Louise was, he sighed as he sat down next to his girlfriend once more. Louise who had been watching him inquired.  
"So what was your sister trying to call you for?" She asked him curiously.

Saji replied clearly.  
"She wanted to check up on me."

Louise understood and nodded.  
"I see." She then added with a perplexed look. "I wonder if mama is worried about me as well." She said to herself.

XXXXX

Location: Coast of Japan

It had been a truly interesting day to say the least, the mission to intervene within the Kyushu incident had been cancelled when they heard the news of what had transpired. But what got Setsuna was the fact that another Gundam had appeared, one of which came out of the blue, but also broken a number of protocols, one being the identity of the pilot.

The youngest meister could only think about whom the pilot of that machine was, the one called Sheppard, his appearance was a surprise, heck a shock to Setsuna. Being able to eliminate all of the members of La Eden with such speed and power, anyone who had been watching could see that the machine which Sheppard had used was a truly impressive piece of technology.

The one thing which got the young meister was the fact that the Gundam that Sheppard was piloting wasn't like the Gundam's that the members of Celestial being were using. It had no GN drive, but regardless even without a GN drive, the machine's speed and terrifying level of firepower alone proved it was more than a match for any mobile suit which the Union and probably all other blocs in the world currently possessed.

As for Celestial Being, the Gundam's used by the meisters might be a match; possibly, there was no way to tell since the only appearance of Sheppard's Gundam had only been a few minutes. But news of the new mobile suit had spread like wildfire. Sumeragi was busy coordinating with Tieria to investigate into the new suit and hopefully come up with something solid.

But for the remaining meisters they had their orders to return to base. For Setsuna this was time for him to take a moment to ponder about what had been revealed. If this was another member of Celestial Being, why did it decide to make a move now? It didn't make any sense; it had only been over a month since the launch of Celestial Being's interventions, so deploy another Gundam?

It was all confusing; undoubtedly Tieria would be going in to investigate this matter thoroughly to find out if this Gundam was listed in their records. But from how Sumeragi was taking the news, there was a high chance that this new arrival might not be actually part of Celestial Being, which raises one big question. Who does this Sheppard work for?

XXXXX

Location: Milky Way Galaxy- Middle of Nowhere- Arcturus Fleet

Carter honestly couldn't believe that Sheppard had gone off and done something this rash, but then again this is Sheppard, though he reminded her of another someone who also was much like that, she couldn't imagine how he believed that going off and engaging in another world's internal problems would help them secure a temporary base of operations or at least some place to stay.

Then again Sheppard followed his heart, and he usually didn't regret making certain decisions unless they came back to bite him in the arse, like a few occasions. But for the most part, Sheppard probably let the spur of the moment to get to him. She knew he had been itching for something else to do since they had been assigned to the Arcturus fleet for its first shakedown run.

She just hoped that Sheppard's attitude didn't end up compelling the other members of the fleet to do something equally as rash and join the Colonel on his little escapade back on the planet. The irony here for Carter was that the planet was Earth, but not the Earth which she and a number of personnel were born on.

Still the matter regarding unauthorised actions could be overlooked, since Sheppard was still in most regards a special case for the UEFF. The president had seen to it that Sheppard's actions in regards to certain unexpected situations is more or less negligible, the matter would be left for whoever else was in command to deal with the former Supreme Commander and any mishaps he may create.

Thankfully Carter was somewhat used to Sheppard and his antics; this was actually refreshing for once, but there was still some uncertainty regarding the situation to which Sheppard had gotten himself involved in. There was a strict policy which the UEFF had brought over from the days of the Stargate program regarding involvement in other world's internal affairs.

The reasons were many and many of those were justified, and rationalized as best as possible, a number of situations occurred in which near disaster occurred from interference from outside influence upon a world, which usually led to near disaster for a few worlds. For the UEFF, the lessons of the past were remembered well. The UEFF wanted to keep developing worlds safe from those who would attempt to exploit them.

It took years to refine the rules and regulations, but there were loopholes which could be exploited, and in Sheppard's case, he used the one regarding the sentient rights act, which states "Any living sentient being has the right to live…" there were many amendments made to the act to cover certain kinds of species carefully.

Sheppard could technically get away with breaking a rule or two, but depending on how things turn out, Carter might have to send the rest of the fleet to get him from causing an incident if things don't work out well. 'If things work out, then the locals wouldn't go into a panicked state and not try and fire ballistic missiles at us if we make ourselves public.' Carter thought to herself humorously.

The ever present sounds of holo-keys being pressed on interface terminals and chatter amongst crew grabbed the General's attention as she broke from her momentary lapse. She was being called on one of the lines on her own terminal, she looked at the icon which represented who was calling her and she almost blanched in her chair when she realised who it was.

'It's **HER** again, oh boy…' Carter rubbed her temples as she looked at the symbol of three hexagonal icons rotating in unison.

Carter cleared her throat and straightened her uniform as she prepared to answer, Carter was hesitant only for 3 reasons, either it was something really unpleasant, obnoxious or truly difficult kind of scenario to which she couldn't avoid that or someone she knew. At the moment this was someone unpleasant that she knew she had to handle on a nearly daily basis.

'Better than McKay, worse than Baal. Somewhere out there someone's holding a grudge against me for something.' She sighed before she pressed the receive option on the contact.

Not to her surprise she was greeted by a loud booming voice. "GENERAL CARTER! Why wasn't I informed that Colonel Sheppard was deployed on a recon mission until now?" The voice cut through the bridge crew's daily chatter like a knife. It startled some members of the crew, but the composed themselves and just ignored the discussion between Carter and the other woman.

Carter replied curtly. "Valia, you know of the Federation Forces regulations regarding the deployment of a long range recon vessel for first contact missions, Sheppard's got his choice and it's my choice to wait for him to report back on his findings before we make any attempts at formal contact." She stated in a calm fashion which seemed like a stark contrast to Valia's less than subtle tone.

"Formal contact? Bah Sheppard's already committed to contact as is, and he's made it pretty clear that there's machines to bash in…" Valia stated in a slightly happy tone.

Carter interjected plainly. "No Valia, I'm not deploying your squad to go help Sheppard deal with internal problems of another world, and besides Zentradi aren't exactly known for subtlety when it comes to dealing with other world's affairs." Carter warned the hot headed officer of Hydra squad.

Valia seemed to glare for a moment before she pouted. "No fair, how come Sheppard gets to do all the fun stuff these days?" She mumbled.

"Because he has a license as a one man army, not to mention he is a one man army. That and he's still the former supreme commander of all of the military, remember?" She said in a somewhat nonchalant tone.

Valia yielded. "Fine, but if Sheppard gets into trouble I'm taking Hydra and heading out regardless." She said clearly before closing the line.

Carter face-palmed. 'Just what we needed, another situation like before.' She recalled the time when Valia said that very same words regarding a highly critical mission which Sheppard had been sent on, which only a few members of the UEFF were supposed to know about almost got her and Hydra almost killed.

There was also the fact that Valia was infatuated with Sheppard, even though he didn't really hold that much of an interest in her. He did admit to Carter he liked her as a comrade in arms, but as someone who'd hold a serious romantic relationship was a completely different thing altogether. She wondered if Valia's experiences as a flesh and blood born Zentradi/Meltrandi might have had some sort of effect on her mental stability, though from what Cassandra had told her that probably wasn't the case.

As for the Zentradi themselves and their female counterpart race as the Meltrandi, their race had appeared in a sector of space far inside the depths of a region called the Newton Proxy Cluster, a vessel created by Stargate Command had been sent on a long range exploration vessel and made brief contact with the alien species, the vessel returned with the news of what was inside the cluster and the SGC mobilised for a full scale confrontation.

The conflict between the SGC and the alien races of the Zentradi/Meltrandi lasted roughly a year before the conflict came to a close, with the aid of off world allies and various neighbouring human worlds adding to their overall military strength, and the aid of the first Songstress Sanya, a human who happened to be a telepath from the Dycillian homeworld.

The threat from the giant sized beings was stopped, however there were concerns the gigantic sized humans may cause trouble in the future, integration was steady, and now 11 years have passed since the first encounter with the beings. The UEFF integrated various races; it wasn't surprising that the giants themselves would be added.

Carter recalled her first time having to fight them back in 1999 when the UCAF gave the SGC their first large scale vessels and cruisers, the day the Daedalus was launched and her formal command as its captain. She inwardly smiled as she reminisced of the old days, Daedalus attack, the infamous ramming and gunning manoeuvre she developed during the war.

Caldwell still made jokes about how she nearly obliterated everyone on a dozen occasions, and he himself admitted having to use it against the Wraith more than once. It had caught on with the rest of the UEFF military, though only the most daring officers dared to adopt such a crazed battle tactic.

There was also the fact that the ship's hull tended to get wrecked when the attack was executed, though for all intents and purposes, it worked like a charm. Carter's musings were once more interrupted, but this time by a less than problematic individual. McKay popped up onto her console, undoubtedly he hacked the line to connect.

"Hey Sam, got Sheppard's report from the parallel Earth, it sounds really intense. Oh by the way, Eli said he wants to go join Valia if you wouldn't mind." McKay stated whilst he fumbled with his holo-pad.

Carter's eye twitched, and she just sighed. "Fine, though tell him it's not worth trying to get close to Maya, as much as she's his type, getting involved with Meltrandi women doesn't end well if you happen to be only a sixth of their size." She said in a weary tone. She really couldn't bother arguing this with Eli; sadly the kid had a crush on a certain pink haired woman who happened to be part of Valia's squad.

Well technically he thought she was quite bright, and in his opinion truly lovely, from at least what he muttered once in his sleep when they camped out during one of their short breaks back on Earth. Carter both laughed and admired the boy for holding onto such a crush, well that and he had his hopes his relationship was possible since there have been those who have successful relationships with the giantess counterparts.

A certain marine's relationship with such an individual also fuelled this, but Carter felt that Eli would soon be torn between his love of games, his work, and his crush. Carter got back to McKay.  
"Is there anything else you needed to add?"

McKay, who played around with his pad, looked around and pondered a bit before he exclaimed.  
"Oh right almost forgot, me and Radek were about to go and get some lunch, Eli's about to go off and grab his and go off to find Maya. So anything you want from the mess?" He asked her.

'McKay's attempt at charm again.' She inwardly laughed. She replied. "I'll just get what's on the lunch special, and a diet coke." She replied.

"Okay, but really the lunch special?" He asked her in a perplexed tone.

"What's wrong with the lunch specials?" She asked him in a slightly annoyed tone.

"It's Wednesday, remember?" He said to her in a plain tone.

She recalled from what the ship's newspaper had said about the week's lunch specials. 'Oh no…'  
"Its Fellian veal isn't it?" She assumed.

McKay nodded in confirmation. Carter changed her mind; she really didn't need her mouth tasting like week old gym socks. "I'll go with a chicken salad and a roll on the side." She said.

Rodney aptly said. "Good choice, I'll see you in ten, the canteen's busy these days." He said before closing the line.

Carter sat back in her chair and sighed in her mind.  
'This day keeps getting better and better.' She thought sarcastically.

XXXXX

Location: Earth- somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

Sheppard departure was marked by a whole plethora of sights, mainly the sight of armed mobile suits and a few ships trying to take pot shots at him. But hey, it was lunch time now 'at least by the clock he had with him', and he hadn't had the chance to take a break since arriving and snack down on something, even though he usually eats three times as much as a normal human because of his altered physiology and biology.

He found as much as his body was improved, it seemed to take a toll on his overall metabolism, well thankfully he didn't need to actually eat as much, his body could store the energy in his body for a lot longer period of time. But he just really enjoyed the taste of certain foods, and also because it had become such a habit.

He recalled how Vega used to grind him for chowing down on the tasteless food of the locals from ASX-901-2, true it was a former penal colony, but hey there really wasn't much else to eat on their world. He grinned at the memory of his shattered past; he still couldn't really recall that much about Vega aside from her being a lesbian, which he respectful decided to avoid bringing up again.

He still couldn't remember when she told him that, but it had to have been some time in 2007 before his sudden death, because after his revival, he couldn't recall her mentioning anything else about her relationship with a certain redheaded scientist afterwards. It was funny, parts of his memories are easily accessible, and other parts weren't.

'The years are starting to weigh down on me again aren't they?' He thought to himself.

He sat back in the chair of his Kestrel pondering of what he should be doing, well eating. He thought back to where he had gone off and rescued those people… 'Japanese style cuisines, can't hurt to go get some udon and miso noodles, hadn't had those in a while.' He thoughtfully recalled.

He recalled the few times when he agreed to go eat with his fellow Korean or Japanese personnel, though he hadn't acquired much of a taste for more robust oriental style meals, he did give points for overall texture. And then there was that haunting reminder, 'Natto', he recalled how much he disliked the taste of the fermented beans.

Eric a fellow Helldiver who served in his command nearly choked himself when he downed a glass of water to swallow the beans, Sheppard honestly took it more casually, but he still disliked the taste. He shivered for a moment before he chuckled; something's about his personality were just hardwired when it came to anything outside the military.

He decided it was time. 'Screw the rules, noodles for me.' He smirked as he brought up his HUD and began tapping in the next location to go to; he was going for some lunch in Japan. And besides, no one saw his face, so it would work to his advantage when he went to get some food from some local restaurant.

Also his Kestrel could be piloted via a neural control or auto-pilot, he didn't need to worry about the locals trying to catch it, and he did technically have cloaking available, so there was that. 'Maybe I'll just go the old fashioned way.' He determined having to deal with locals chasing after the Kestrel wouldn't look too good in Carter's eyes so he decided against teasing them with it.

Besides he wanted some peace and quiet when he got his lunch. As the Kestrel changed its course, Sheppard did ponder about one last thing as the fighter turned itself towards Japan. 'Do the locals have global tracking satellites?'

XXXXX

Location: North America- Washington DC- White House

Things truly have been hectic as of late since the completion of the orbital elevators and then the situation in the colonies, and more recently Celestial Being's armed interventions, but now they had to contend with the sudden appearance of an unknown machine which resembled the organisation's mobile suit called Gundam.

Of course there was the off chance that this might not be part of Celestial Being, but then it would mean that another organisation had arisen with the capabilities to create a machine equally as powerful as a Gundam. It was the last thing the world needed was another self-proclaimed private army out to eradicate war, or worse.

But this was all in the air for the moment, this new suit didn't seem like it was built like Celestial Being's own mobile suits, from the meeting with the Chief of Staff regarding intelligence gathered from various sources on the suit. It seemed like the machine was a completely different kind of mobile suit altogether.

But the question was raised, who would have the technology and resources to create such a powerful machine? It may have been Celestial Being simply testing a separately developed mobile suit, but it might not be the case. The president of one of the most powerful and respectively advanced power blocs on the Earth wasn't sure what to make of the situation.

His attention was brought to the sound of the Vice President who had entered into the Oval Office.  
He turned about and greeted his running mate.  
"David, I was wondering when you might get back, how was the meeting?" He inquired warmly.

The Vice President replied.  
"The meeting had been cut short; there was something which caught the attention of the orbital satellite trackers, they took these images just half an hour ago." David presented a file with the images caught from the satellites.

The President was a hard to surprise man, but this did catch his attention.  
"Is that the transforming mobile suit from before?" He inquired with a mildly surprised tone.

"Yes, it seems that it hadn't been as hard to track since it didn't emit the special particles which Celestial Being's mobile suits do. But it was also because of a strange anomalous energy emission being created by the machine was picked up by not only our satellites, but also weather tracking stations. It seemed to leave a strange trail of thermal energy in a wide area." David replied as he indicated to each image.

"Are they still tracking the machine right now?" He inquired.

"No sadly, the machine seemed to just vanish right after these images were taken, but from what we could determine, it wasn't jamming the satellites, we're not sure, but the machine may have some form of optical cloaking." The Vice President stated in a slightly uncertain tone.

"Cloaking technology… so there's been no further sightings since these images were taken?" He asked aptly.

"No, but from what our initial observations could determine, the machine was heading in a beeline…" He pulled up a map and indicated from where the mysterious mobile suit had vanished to where it was heading. "It predicted to be heading straight towards mainland Japan."

This was definitely puzzling, what could the pilot be expecting to do by going to Japan? The more and more things developed, it seemed more and more like whoever this pilot was, they certainly had a strange sense of navigation. "How did the satellites determine this?" He asked David.

"The speeds at which were being recorded when this image was taken was registered at Mach 12 speeds, most likely its cruise speed, it hadn't changed speeds or adjusted its heading, its flying straight towards Japan. We can safely assume that it would either bypass Japan and continue flying, or land in Japan for whatever reason the pilot had decided." David replied in a clam yet intrigued tone.

"This is certainly an interesting turn of events…" The President mumbled as he looked over the reports.

"Should we mobilise our East Asia Pacific assets to attempt to intercept the mobile suit?" David asked him in a cautious tone.

The man didn't wish to start a confrontation with this mysterious suit, but for whatever reason it had decided to go to Japan, put it firmly within reach of the Union. "Very well, have the nearest assets close to Japan go and intercept the suit if possible, however, should the situation deteriorate, have them pull back." He replied in mused tone.

The man stood up from his desk and turned back to face the outside view of the city, he pondered as to what was going on. 'Is something wrong with all of this?' He wondered as he thought about the sudden change in the mobile suit's direction. There was something odd about all of this, the pilot whoever it may have been was acting erratically.

XXXXX

Location: Orbit- Ptolemy

Since the appearance of the Gundam like mobile suit under the control of a mysterious individual who could only be identified as Sheppard, things have been quite hectic; however there were many questions and very few answers. Sumeragi sat at her terminal with a can of beer next to her; she looked over the intelligence gathered from Veda on the mysterious unit called Sheppard and referenced any known record which traced past mobile suit pilot who might have been part of Celestial Being.

Of course individual records on members of Celestial Being weren't entirely available; certain members had secure protection to keep them anonymous, there was also the fact that if any other part of Celestial Being had indeed been developing separate kinds of Gundam's then Veda wouldn't disclose this information to all the branches of the organisation.

But something was definitely different about the machine being used by Sheppard, that much was certain, the engineering principle of the machine was like that of Kyrios, but it transformed in a different fashion. There were too many differences in the machines to say it was exactly based off the Gundam, there also seemed to be the fact that the machine's weaponry was also quite different.

The recorded video which was acquired through Veda indicated that the weaponry used were like the linear rifles of the Union, but vastly more advanced, but there was something strange, during the battle there was a mysterious streak of light which burst forth from the ocean and disabled the last machine used by La Eden.

The image recorded was enhanced using AI, but what was shown made no sense, the machine which was disabled showed two strange bullet shaped objects punching right through the arms at tremendous speeds, not like a linear rifle, but something else entirely. This weaponry seemed to be more like guided missiles, but vastly smaller and it wasn't like anything developed on Earth.

'This isn't adding, up…' Sumeragi surmised in her head. 'These technological differences are too much; none of this technology is being used by Celestial Being, so why does it look like a Gundam?' She thought to herself.

There could a few more reasonable explanations to this occurrence. One the machine does belong to Celestial Being, but a separate branch and had launched under orders from someone else, this seems unlikely since the means in which the intervention was carried out was vastly different. Two the machine doesn't belong to Celestial Being but another organisation entirely which doesn't operate like Celestial Being or has yet to make an official appearance, which seems like a good possibility. Three, this machine doesn't belong to anyone aside from the pilot and whoever he works for isn't on any known record or organisation, which would mean it might be from one of the colonies, but then it made this rather difficult to imagine a colony pouring this much development into a single machine.

'These possibilities are those which are more explainable don't cover for one other possibility, something unexplainable.' Sumeragi pondered what could be the most unprecedented possibility in the universe which would explain this.

She couldn't think of it as she sighed in exhaustion, she figured it was possibly some faction in the colonies, they have this peculiar thing about their attitude especially those who were born on the colonies and had never been once set foot on Earth. But something doesn't add up, why would a rebel of the colonies even bother helping Earth born civilians?

That part made no sense whatsoever which meant that either this was a special case, or whoever was piloting that machine had no affiliation with the colonial rebellion factionists. But enough beating around the bush, Aeolia's plans haven't been interfered with yet, whoever this person was, he may become troublesome to deal with in the future. That is assuming he decided to begin interfering, which in Sumeragi's opinion seemed doubtful.

But as she got out of her seat, the console activated with Chris who exclaimed.  
"Miss Sumeragi, Veda's found something."

Sumeragi's attention was brought to the console with the new information brought forth by Veda, she immediately saw what it was about, there were satellite images which had been taken not long ago, the transforming mobile suit which Sheppard piloted was on the screen, above the Pacific. But that wasn't all that caught her attention.

Veda had brought forth that the information was over an hour old, but not only that, the Union was tracking the movement of the fighter along with the HRL, it seemed the machine was making its way North in the general direction of Japan. The Union had seemingly organised a small detachment of MS units in the Pacific to track the suit.

The machine had shown a surprising ability to disappear from the satellites since it simply vanished after the image was taken, but this predicted path was something the Union hoped to capitalise upon since the machine would be right in their territory. If there was a mistake and the suit simply turned away somewhere else, the Union could simply say the MS units deployed were heading to Japan for resupply.

However if they ran into Sheppard and his suit there, things would turn rather messy. But still from how Sheppard fought members of La Eden and how he saved a civilian in need, it seemed as though he'd actually avoid fighting anywhere near an inhabited part of Japan, or at least he'd avoid dragging civilians into the mess.

Sumeragi pondered if she should assign Setsuna and Lockon to turn about and head over to observe the situation, but Veda hadn't given any sort of order to begin deployment in regards to the current situation. She decided to hold off on sending the Gundams over, for now it was merely wait and see what happened next before deciding a course of action.

XXXXX

Location: Pacific Ocean- Union Fleet- Carrier group 4

"So this mysterious transforming MS that looks like a Gundam has been spotted heading in the general direction of Japan?" A blonde haired man asked inquisitively.

"That's what our intelligence indicated, from what they gathered, it was travelling at cruising speeds of Mach 3, and they estimated it would take a few hours before it arrived in Japan, we'd be behind by maybe half a day if we keep at top speeds. For whatever reason, the pilot has decided to go back to Japan." Another man in a lab coat replied in an equally intrigued tone.

"Maybe he's just going there for lunch?" A man with brown hair and glasses said with humour.

The group laughed altogether before a dark skinned member of the group stated.  
"Whatever the reason may be, we have a prime opportunity to test our new flags against the Gundam, even if it isn't a Gundam, it's still pretty close by comparison." He said in an enthusiastic tone.

"I doubt that it'd be that easy, the battle recorded from the La Eden incident we've managed to recover indicate that whatever this machine is, it might actually exceed the capabilities of the Gundams which are being used by Celestial Being." The scientist stated in a slightly serious tone.

"What makes you think that this machine is any different than those of Celestial Being's?" The man in glasses asked.

"Well put simply, none of the technological aspects of Celestial Being are present in the design of the machine used by this Sheppard, whatever his Gundam is, it's not like theirs. It had none of the special particles being emitted or any sign of Celestial Being's seamlessly designed weaponry, whatever this machine is, it's unlikely to be a Gundam, but possibly something advanced in its own right." The scientist explained as best as he could.

"Which means either way that this machine has made its presence known, and our commander in chief has ordered us to investigate regardless, we will intervene, and whether or not it's a Gundam will be determined when we cross blades." The blonde haired officer said in a tone of anticipation which also hinted excitement.

"Graham, I keep telling you, I doubt that fighting this pilot is going to be so simple, if anything how it dispatched those Hellions in that last battle indicates that this machine might actually out match the Custom Flags in terms of manoeuvrability and speed, and we don't know the technological differences between our current MSs and it. But since you're so insistent, all I can say is you should be careful." The scientist stated in a concerned tone.

Graham nodded and replied. "I understand, though I doubt that pilot would be as cautious, being so reckless in deciding to show himself so openly."

"Maybe he was just careless?" The man with glasses asked openly.

"I doubt it Howard, considering how we spotted him, I can say we got lucky." Graham interjected.

The dark skinned member suggested thoughtfully. "If its luck then it looks as though luck will favour us in the search shouldn't it?"

Graham chuckled. "Never took you for believing in luck Daryl, but then again I shouldn't be the one to speak."

"Destiny or otherwise, we have a mission coming up, I'll have to catch up with you later, I do need to attend to your suits maintenance after all." The scientist said as he indicated to a nearby clock.

"See you later Billy." Graham said as the man left the room.

As the men got back to focusing on the topic of Sheppard's mobile suit, Daryl inquired.  
"So, if we do run into this mysterious Gundam, what should we do?"

"Well we have our objective, capture it or if the situation deteriorates, we have to destroy it." Graham surmised with a shrug.

XXXXX

Location: Japan- Tokyo- specific location [unknown]

Sheppard's arrival back in Japan had been rather quick, midway through his trip he decided that he couldn't be screwed with taking 4 hours to get to the mainland so he kicked up the drives and catapulted his way over within minutes. It was still thankfully midday when he arrived over the mainland.

But finding a parking spot for a large transforming fighter craft wasn't easy, since when did Japan have parking spaces for aircraft? He had no choice but to land it somewhere off in the distance not too far from the city and simply pick up another means of transportation to get to the city. He spent the better part of half an hour sticking his thumb out on a scenic route to the city.

Once he managed to get into Tokyo there was one slight problem, he didn't know anything about the city itself, sadly this Tokyo didn't look like anything like the Tokyo he had been to so this was sort of confusing. He spent quite some time asking for directions before someone pointed out a shopping mall not too far from the business district.

However one aspect of Tokyo hadn't changed since he was last here, the crowds; he had really hated getting stuck in the midst of large crowds since he last visited the country. He had enough of this to deal with back in Atlantis. As he navigated his way to the shopping mall, he remembered something rather funny; he wasn't carrying any cash on him…

'Oh hell…' He face palmed as he arrived at the mall.

XXXXX

AN: Well going to have to cut it short here, I was going to have him make a cameo with some other characters but sadly I just didn't have enough time for it, so I'll hold on the idea. Also regarding aliens, yes I know they are from Macross please don't sue.

Zentradi/Meltrandi isn't my idea, and also there's going to be half a dozen other species and different kinds of races with humans, don't ask yet I'm still determining which ones to put in and those to leave out.

And I did ask some of my readers about whether to add other races to the United Earth Federation, since well the UEF have encountered hundreds of races and species across the universe, it'd make sense to have a few on some of their ships. And also it'd be funny to see how people react to a giant woman in an even bigger machine. :D


	3. Chapter 3

CH3: An act of Convenience

XXXXX

AN: I got an early start on this piece, I thought I'd get it out of the way ASAP; this is solely focusing on a certain level of mayhem which is set to occur. And also the first contact with the UEF…

XXXXX

Location: Earth- Japan- Tokyo

The sounds of people chatting and walking drowned out Sheppard's sigh; he stood inside the shopping mall with a look of both defeat and annoyance, he couldn't believe he forgot to bring in some proper cash. He knew he felt like he was forgetting something, he didn't realise it till now and well he felt like an idiot.

Well he did have a certain form of currency, the problem was, solid gold coins wouldn't really be accepted as formal payment here in this reality would it? To explain simply, gold was required for UEFF personnel on shore leave on some planets since many worlds in Pegasus were all lesser developed planets.

None of the planets had credits like Earth or some of the more developed planets, so gold was required for personnel to take during leave, Sheppard knew that he might be able to use the coins, but he'd probably attract unnecessary amounts of attention in the process. He had about 60 kilograms of gold coins in his compression storage device.

But he didn't know what the exchange rate was for gold to this version of Japanese currency; he'd rather avoid spending most of his gold and then later learning that it was at a higher exchange. As he thought of his next course of action, he decided he'd find a place to go to and eat and then find some place he could get an exchange.

As he headed through the mall, he found the shops to be pretty much what he'd expect to find in any Japanese shopping mall, though he was surprised that there was a lack of any cosplayers as he used to run into quite a few of them back in Japan around Tokyo. As much as it seemed quite surprising, it was also a little dull.

He liked it when kids used to dress up as him, or well Helldivers in general, they found a lot of expensive ways to make themselves look like the part of UEFF, though it should be noted many of them weren't joining the UEFF, they liked the design of their armour. There was also a strange likeness to the races of the UEF, many tried to dress themselves up like races of the Mithrans and Thal'sians, though the latter was much harder to achieve since none of them could stand at 9 feet without high platform shoes and such.

But it was an enjoyable sight, well something funny as well; and here it seemed kind of dull. He walked down to what he could tell was a food court, upon entering he looked around for any sort of place which looked familiar, and well one restaurant caught his attention, he honestly couldn't believe that there was actually such a place in this reality. A large orange sight with a circle and moustache like smile in the middle had in bold letters: GYUNOYA.

'Huh, figures.' He smiled inwardly as he made his way over to the restaurant on the lower side of the food court.

As he got within spitting range of the shop, he heard some commotion before two girls ran out of the shop, one in a Chinese dress, and the other in a rather gaudy robe. A man in chef's clothes ran out and shouted at them. "Damn eat and runners get back here so I can teach you a lesson on common courtesy!" He shouted with a spatula in hand.

The other patrons around the food court looked rather uninterested in the scene; it seemed like this was a daily occurrence with the restaurant and went back to their meals. Sheppard felt a bead of sweat form on the back of his head as the chef sighed in annoyance and grumbled all the way back to the kitchen of the restaurant.

Sheppard got back to focusing on his lunch and walked right in after the man, to his surprise, he found the shop looked a lot older than the rest of the mall. Just to make sure he was in the right place he looked back outside to check the shop sign. 'Yeah, that says GYUNOYA. So why does this place look so old rundown?' He wondered as he looked around at the various other restaurants in the mall.

He stepped right back in and found himself back to the interior of the restaurant, wooden tables and chairs, all of which had once been polished now looked as if it was all sanded, tables with chipped edges and yellowed wallpaper, he couldn't put his finger on it, but he had a feeling GYUNOYA hadn't been doing so well in the past 300 years in this timeline.

As he took his seat, he noted that there were only 2 other patrons, one being a young boy who was busy reading a manga on a nearby table whilst wolfing down on some ramen, he looked oddly familiar, but Sheppard couldn't put his finger on why. And in another corner was a man with a bottle of sake next to him, he looked asleep.

'Wow the years haven't been kind of the franchise.' Sheppard immediately thought to himself.

It was then a waitress made her way over to him; she immediately caught his eye as quite a nice looking woman, brunette, ponytail hair, flawless skin, and an ample bosom… 'Damn it Sheppard focus, you came here for food not making another ex-girlfriend who'll try kill you.' He chastised himself mentally and focused upon what the woman said.

"Hello, welcome to GYUNOYA restaurant, what would you like to order?" She asked with a welcoming smile.

Sheppard replied curtly. "I'm not going to order straight away, sorry I just came to check the menu, I don't exactly have cash on me." He said honestly with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, we have an older credit card machine nearby, I think it still works." She said gesturing to the counter. "Though it does have a habit of breaking down at the worst times." She added with a bit of an annoyed tone.

"Well I don't know, but what about gold coins?" He asked her.

This caught the woman's attention immediately. "Gold coins… wait why do you have gold coins?" She asked him in a perplexed expression.

"Let's just leave it that I earned them…" He said as he pulled out a single gold coin.

"Mind if I look?" She asked him.

He handed them coin, he knew she wouldn't drop it, it seemed quite an interesting development, not to mention quite beneficial for the restaurant for a patron to bring in something quite valuable as payment. She looked over the coin and even pressed her finger into it to check it was actual gold, she wasn't disappointed, and she seemed to tell it was quite real.

"Quite amazing, it's hard to come upon solid currency around the world, not to mention such rarities are quite a sight…" She said in an impressed tone before she handed the coin back.

"Are they? Huh, well would you know any place where I could get this exchanged?" He asked her.

"I do, there's a bank on the third level, and they also do currency exchange. But I do have to warn you, they ask for ID, you can't just waltz in and ask to have it exchanged." She replied aptly.

The realisation just hit him like a ton of bricks, identification, he had nothing like that on him, and there was also the fact that he couldn't forge an ID on a whim, sadly he wasn't as well versed in hacking more secure networks, and he usually relegated that to either McKay or Eli to do it. He felt a bit dull for not realising this little hiccup in his plan.

There was very likely a lot more security for banks and organisations than in the past, so chances were that less general methods of acquiring funds wouldn't work here, not unless he went somewhere less developed. He decided to ask the waitress. "Uh hang on; your restaurant wouldn't mind just accepting payment in the form of gold would it?" He asked in a curious tone with a sheepish look on his face.

The waitress looked over to the kitchen and replied. "I'll need to talk this over with my father, could you wait a moment?" She asked him nicely.

"Sure." He said before the woman hurried off to the back of the kitchen.

Sheppard had a feeling that the chances that the woman was lying was probably minimal since he did a short network check regarding the bank she had mentioned, and well she was right, the bank did have a more secure method of exchange, which was not particularly good for him. And he figured if he did a further search regarding other banks that he'd run across the same thing. There was always the option of going somewhere like a pawn shop, but then again, what were the chances that they'd pay up front in cash?

It all boiled down to whether or not he'd have better luck trusting the waitress, who had yet to give him her name. He figured that if she did give him her name, he'd probably forget it eventually, he tends to meet women from around the galaxy, and he couldn't possibly remember every single one of them from one universe to the other now could he?

It didn't take long and a couple of raised voices of excitement and surprise before the woman walked back out with her father the chef of the store, Sheppard got a proper look at the man, who he now noticed had some really thick eyebrows and had a peculiar smell of gin around him. Sheppard honestly wondered as to why this particular fellow had the smell of gin on him, but the man began to speak to him.

"So, you're the one my daughter's gotten worked up about? I can see why… you're in the military aren't you?" The man asked with an air of interest in Sheppard.

Sheppard wasn't as surprised as he was intrigued, the man seemed to read people carefully and very well, Sheppard then asked in return. "Why would I be in the military?" Sheppard asked in a tone of feigning ignorance.

"You've got those eyes, calm and disciplined look, you've seen quite a bit haven't you? You're posture is also incredibly straight, and the fact you're wearing a jacket which looks like it can shrug off a bullet is also a pretty good tip to the fact that you're not a normal person." He replied in his observation of Sheppard, but he added thoughtfully. "You also have a weapon holstered in your jacket." He pointed around Sheppard's ribcage.

Sheppard smiled, he didn't realise how good this person's eyes were, he managed to determine where Sheppard had his modified .45 Shepard M5 handgun, a high powered magnetic linear accelerator gun, the very same gun he had since he first joined the military. Sheppard raised his hands and admitted defeat. "Okay looks like you've got me." He said in humoured tone.

The waitress was more surprised about this than her father was, but she didn't bother to say anything and just waited patiently. Sheppard asked. "So, is there a problem with me being in the military?"

The man shrugged. "Nope, just that I was a former soldier myself, interesting to see someone like you around here though, Union Special Forces? Wouldn't be so surprised…" He was finally interrupted by his daughter. "Dad, just tell him if the payment for the meals are fine." She said in an annoyed tone.

The man chuckled and nodded. "Right almost forgot, its fine to pay in gold, as long as it's nothing to be concerned about." He said aptly.

Sheppard pulled out another 4 coins and handed them over to the chef. "Here, I might come back for other times, but the gold you can have, besides you might need to do a bit of redecorating." Sheppard gestured around at the slightly worn walls.

"Ah, yes, it's been a long time since our stores have been open, sadly only a few shops remain these days, thank you for your patronage Mr…" The man gestured to Sheppard.

"Call me Sheppard, don't put Mr in front of it, it makes me feel old." Sheppard said with a grin before adding. "What would be your names?"

The waitress replied. "I'm Keiko Matsuri, and this is my father Tsugi, pleased to make your acquaintance." The waitress said as she held out her hand.

Sheppard shook the woman's hand and her father's before stating. "Likewise, if you wouldn't mind, it's kind of getting late; I'd really like to get lunch sorted before I have to get going." He said calmly as he gestured to the clock on the nearby wall.

They noticed that it was about 45 past 12, they had spent quite a bit of time, and they nodded. "Right of course, so what is it that you'd like to order?" Keiko asked.

"One ramen in chilled broth and another in miso soup with beef, I'll also have a can of creaming soda." He replied aptly.

'No beer for today, if I meet someone out here, I'd prefer not having bad breath.' He thought to himself. As the waitress took his orders and placed them to her father, Sheppard's attention was grabbed by the boy who was in the shop finally conclude his meal and depart. As the boy left a woman entered into the restaurant.

Matsuri came back out from the kitchen with his meals in hand and greeted the woman as she put his meals on his table. "Thanks…" He said as she went off to greet the new patron. "Ah, welcome Kinue." She chirped happily.

"Good afternoon Matsuri, I'll just have the usual…" She replied as she took up a seat at a table next to Sheppard.

"Ah okay." Matsuri said before she hurried back to the kitchen to put down her order.

As Sheppard observed the woman carefully, he could immediately recalled who this was, she was that reporter from before, thanks to his neural interface he had literally photographic memory. The woman didn't need to wait long before Matsuri brought out her meal, and brought Sheppard a can of soda. "Thanks." He said accepting the drink.

"No thank you Sheppard for your patronage to our store." She replied curtly.

Kinue's attention seemed to peak when she heard Sheppard's name, not to mention voice, she threw a quick look in his direction to which he simply turned to his meal and began to chow down. He knew that Kinue would be a little suspicious of a sudden man who happened to sound like the man from the video which was currently being circulated across the world and on every news network.

Sheppard pretended to act as if he was more engrossed in his meal than bothered to talk, Kinue seemed to buy it and simply got back to her food. Matsuri came back out with a cup of tea and gave it to Kinue who thanked her before placing it next to her dish. Matsuri took the time to inquire.  
"Kinue, how's work at the network been?"

Kinue replied in a rather exhausted tone. "Busy, they called me back to Tokyo, the whole incident with La Eden has put the world a little on edge, but its more to do with that strange mobile suit, they've got every major network trying to figure out who the machine belongs to since its appearance, though everyone thinks it's part of Celestial Being." Kinue sighed as she finished.

"Oh, sounds frustrating." Matsuri said in a sympathetic tone.

"It is, but what can you do? There's still so much we don't know about that organisation, or the plans set into motion by their founder, as far as I can tell whoever the pilot of that machine is, he's left quite an impression." She stated.

Matsuri nodded and after a minute or two of speaking with Kinue she headed back into the kitchen. Sheppard wasn't sure if blowing his cover would be a good idea, but he'd rather learn of what was going on around the place, the news of his impact from a reporter would be a probably more or less accurate view of current state of affairs within the world than just watching it from some TV channel.

As he finished his meal in record time, he skulled the rest of his drink in seconds and turned his attention to the reporter, he decided to play cat and mouse for this one, he knew that revealing his existence would definitely get him into some sort of trouble, but there was actually no regulation forbidding him from making contact with an already developed planet. (Developed can actually mean a lot of things in the UEFF regulations and charter in regards to races of humans.)

He decided to just prod carefully. "You know, with all the ruckus caused about Gundams, doesn't your news network have other interests? I mean sure, giant as heck mecha flying around and fighting each other would be pretty awesome to hear about, but still." He said in a candid fashion.

Kinue turned her attention from her food and noticed that in the past couple of minutes Sheppard had consumed his meal with incredible speed and ease, she had a raised eyebrow but didn't show any further expressions of surprise. She cleared her throat before replying.  
"Well in regards to your question, the network is continuing to broadcast other topics and other news from around the world, it's just that this incident being the closest to Japan is quite significant to both the public and media. It is also something I have taken quite a serious interest into." She replied calmly.

"Is that so? Why would this be more of a concern to one reporter in the entire world than the rest of the world's current affairs?" Sheppard asked her once again in a candid tone.

Kinue seemed to tighten her gaze and replied.  
"Celestial Being is involved in the world's affairs, their impact is global, along with the symbol of their opposition to the world's military being the Gundam's it's clear that they effect a number of the world's affairs, in one way shape or form." She stated clearly.

He knew he couldn't get her to give up any further info, she looked like someone who would stave off giving away too much without confirming it herself, he knew people like her, and especially one woman who he had worked with back in the day in regards to his time in the US Marines Special Forces.

He got caught up with her and had to save her rear end on more than one occasion, not to mention she did get him shot in the arm and foot. He hated it when it came to women with a determined sense of curiosity; it tended to leave him with more holes than he originally began with. He decided to make a little more bold statement.

"So then, what's the interest of the supposed pilot of this Gundam?" He asked her plainly.

Kinue seemed genuinely baffled that he decided to go straight from one thing to another, which was a good thing since Sheppard had a track record of throwing people off balance with these sorts of cat and mouse questions. Kinue took a moment to get over the random question.  
"My interest in the pilot is purely curiosity, there was no indication of the pilot or the machine making any appearance in the world till now, and from what people can speculate, the technology used in the machine is completely alien, it has weaponry that haven't been seen or used by Celestial Being in the past." She paused before adding. "And the pilot of that machine, he seemed different…" Kinue finished with a slight look of confusion.

"Different how?" He asked her with a look of interest.

Kinue was now generally baffled by Sheppard, he had a feeling she suspected him now.  
"Well, the fact that no pilot has made a statement, or have even exited their machines, no one has seen them outside their Gundam's and yet the pilot went out of his way to save a girl who happens to be close to my younger brother."

It was Sheppard's turn to be a little surprised. "Oh, that was his girlfriend? I never knew that." He mumbled quietly.

Kinue just managed to catch Sheppard's comment before he stood up.  
"Well nice chatting to you, I've gotta go." He said with a grin before shouting to the waitress. "Thank you for the meal!" He recalled how his fellow officers had done so on their occasions back at restaurants in the past.

Before Kinue knew it, Sheppard was about to walk out of the restaurant, she seemed to panic and put down some money for the meal and excused herself from the shop. Sheppard could hear her exit the store and hurry over to try and catch up with him; he made a brisk pace ahead of the woman.

He felt as though today was going to be a rather interesting day.

XXXXX

Location: Japan- Tokyo- coastline

Setsuna checked his clock on his Gundam; he found that it had just passed 1, he was feeling a little tired since he had been deployed, but from what orders he received from Sumeragi he didn't really have much time to get rested. He had been sent back to Japan to investigate the mysterious Gundam like machine which had appeared before.

The objective was clear, it was to determine if the machine had arrived in Japan and if so, he was to locate the pilot immediately and determine who their affiliation was, and if necessary to eliminate them. He spent the last hour making the return trip at best speed in his Exia Avalanche; he really didn't intend to use the Avalanche pack since it was slightly bulky for combat, but it granted him greater speeds and manoeuvrability over his opponents.

He was now approaching the coast, he could see from the horizon the distinct outline of the city ahead, he pulled the Exia into a dive and plunged the machine into the water below to avoid detection. He'd travel the rest of the way to his apartment on foot; he also would need a change of clothes once he got back to his apartment.

As he pulled his machine into the water, he didn't notice that the Union fleet was also not so far away.

XXXXX

"There's no sign of the Gundam like machine? What's going on?" Graham asked Billy in a puzzled tone.

Billy shrugged. "I'm sorry, but the faint emissions given off vanished after an hour, the trail went cold some time ago, it seems the machine in question has managed to elude us." He said with a sheepish look.

Graham sighed. "So I guess this means we're going to fall back upon our exercise excuse and land anchor the fleet at Japan till we can pick up the trail?" He asked the scientist.

Billy nodded and adjusted his glasses before adding. "Essentially, though it does give us time to rethink our strategy, we managed to figure out that the suit has a lot faster speeds than just what was observed. Which raises a lot more questions and answers very few… I guess that really doesn't help this situation." Billy realised before dismissing the comment. "Never mind, till we can get back on track, we have received permission to take time off. Oh I also have an old friend who works for a major company which develops mobile suits in Japan, I'm sure you'd love to meet with her, she's been helping…" Billy was cut off by Graham who interrupted with. "I'll pass for today." He said before exiting the room.

Billy gave him an unimpressed look before adding. "Spoil sports."

XXXXX

Location: Japan- arriving at Tokyo

It had been a long day; it didn't take long for Saji and Louise along with the remaining people to get cleared for departure, Saji and Louise had taken the first train back to Tokyo, his sister went ahead of him since he knew it would take some time for the police to get a statement from him and Louise over what they witnessed.

The process took slightly longer for him and Louise since they had direct contact with the pilot of the mysterious Gundam like mobile suit, it hadn't even been a day and it seemed the world was in a fuss to figure out what was going on. He himself preferred to go and take a bit of time to sleep, he and Louise were both exhausted from today's events, well that and he honestly hadn't caught much sleep in the week.

'Sis would scold me for staying up late.' He thought to himself.

As they arrived on the outskirts of the city, Saji took a moment to take a look at the sight, the large skyscrapers and various buildings towering across the landscape, it was quite a welcoming sight somewhat since it was a place he was familiar with. He then looked over to Louise, she was fast asleep on his shoulder, she seemed happy enough to sleep on his arm. He wondered if she'd be happy when he'd have to wake her when they arrive at the station.

But there was one other thought, he wondered whether or not the man who saved Louise really was a Gundam pilot, it's just something felt different about the man, and he couldn't put his finger on it. He just hoped that the man was doing well, and wondered. 'Why did he save all of us and Louise?'

XXXXX

Location: Japan- Tokyo

Sheppard admitted maybe letting out a hint of him being involved in the Incident near Kyushu might have been a slightly foolhardy thing to do, but he liked to play cat and mouse with reporters, well journalists actually. Kinue from what he could tell hadn't given up on following him; she kept him in her sights.

But Sheppard made it a haphazard thing for the woman, he made the trip outgoing towards his Kestrel, but this time he was taking the long way back, and on foot to top it all off. He wondered if the reporter was so determined to keep on his feet till they got to the further outskirts of Tokyo that said the walk would take an hour or two since he parked a certain distance from the city.

However Kinue seemed determined to get some answers, and she did catch up occasionally. As if on cue, Kinue managed to catch up once more as they followed a long footpath following along a road heading out of the city. She managed to ask him. "Sheppard, if that's your real name, don't make me repeat myself. Why did you help them?" She asked him in a demanding tone.

Sheppard didn't reply and walked onwards with his hands in his pockets. He finally decided. "I'll tell you when I stop." He replied at last, he continued to walk onwards.

Kinue seemed a bit peeved, but she really couldn't let this chance slip up, but she had to contact someone before heading any further away. She hoped that her gut feeling was right.

XXXXX

Location: Milky Way Galaxy- Middle of Nowhere- Arcturus Fleet

It had been over an hour since Sheppard sent his report back, and this time it seemed he might have crossed the line a bit, he had gotten the attention of a certain local reporter and he was being pursued by them. It seemed they wanted to know if he was involved in the incident with the local terrorists, he of course hadn't replied and merely dragged the reporter from place to place.

Carter grinned at the trouble he must be causing the poor person, but then again, he was also causing trouble here since Valia had been getting a little restless with waiting around, and when she meant waiting around she meant pacing inside the recreation room with her fellow squad mates looking over the incoming reports.

She was just glad that Eli went down to check on Maya so they didn't get too stir crazy, but she did need Sheppard to get back within the set deadline and avoid causing trouble. The last thing she needed was a highly agitated Zentradi to go storming off with her subordinates to an unsuspecting planet and begin wreaking havoc on the planet's surface.

And there was also the fact that Valia was trying to deal with looking for a new means of coping with her agitation, to which she has been trying to find a boyfriend; sadly Sheppard fell into this category along with 4 other single male officers. Of course Sheppard was in her sights since she had known him a lot longer than any of the other officers.

Sheppard kept telling her it was a bad idea for them to form a relationship since he was not one to settle down and he had his reasons, she didn't entirely give up, but she does like it when he gets involved amidst confrontations. She gets itching to get into the fight and it results with either many pilots getting in the way or Sheppard himself having to clean up.

'Hopefully this isn't going to be a repeat of all of those other times.' Carter thought to herself.

As she pondered over the possibility of Valia starting a fight with the locals, another thought popped into her head. 'Since when does Sheppard do anything subtly?' The thought seemed to damn any peace of mind since she knew that he'd probably pull off a stunt which would cause more trouble, and chances were Valia and Hydra were going to go AWOL as soon as it happened.

XXXXX

It was a bit late into the afternoon, about 4 now on Sheppard's clock, and from where he was now travelling, he was a few minutes from the Kestrel, he just hoped that no one accidently stumbled upon it while he was out. And he also recalled how much he needed to get into contact with Carter and ask her to consider opening up some communications.

But that was less than likely to happen, Carter wouldn't needlessly begin open communications just yet, more likely she'd scold him, and have Eli and some other team deal with going to this Earth and learning do a proper and thorough research into what was going on in this reality. Well that and the chances that the team would begin causing trouble were less since Sheppard wouldn't be around.

But then again, there was always Delta, he knew that Jonathan would jump at a chance like this; he and his men would probably more trouble than Sheppard. But then again he doubted even Carter would be coerced into sending them down onto this world even for a short recon, there was always such a high chance of Delta blowing things up, unexpectedly of course.

If it was a research team then he felt sorry for Anders and her team, they'd be stuck on babysitting duty for the duration of their stay, and he knew how much she'd love to punch Michelson in the face since that little incident roughly a year ago when he did something embarrassing to her. She still hadn't forgiven the social psychologist for causing such a mess.

He found some comfort that the likely teams that Carter would choose for any sort of undertaking were going to be guarded at minimum by one of his marines, they had a track record of being able to handle a number of situations on their own. He just hoped it really didn't come to that, he liked being able to go off world every so often, it'd be a bit of a downer to get stuck in a chair for the next week.

But with all the trouble he's been causing lately, he probably couldn't blame Carter if she chose to put him off the field for a little while. As he broke from his thoughts he realised how close they had gotten to the landing site, here he could the river where he parked by, there was also a noticeable number of local shops, the area wasn't really that inhabited since it was further from the centre of Japan's capital.

Sheppard didn't recall the name of the place where he parked; just that it was a reserve of sorts, and one where not many people went to. He finally turned a corner into the reserve itself and made a beeline straight for his machine, Kinue continued to follow him, though he noted that she had gotten herself a bottle of water and was looking out of breath.

He then recalled one slight oversight on his behalf, technically Sheppard was a lot more fit than that of the average human, essentially he could move much faster, further, but also he had forgotten that he probably made an 8 kilometre journey on foot. Kinue probably had a few blisters now, but they had reached their destination.

Sheppard didn't want to discourage the woman since she had spent a lot of time and energy going after him. He walked a bit further until they got to a nearby grove of trees at the edge of an embankment; he stopped at last and then turned around to face Kinue who was nursing her feet.  
"Well I can tell you, you've got quite the spark of determination, how're your feet?" He asked as he began to tap something onto his wrist console.

"Sore, no thanks to you." She replied disgruntled.

"Sorry for the trip, but you probably should wear something less difficult to travel in." He replied with a smirk.

She threw him a glare and he shrugged. "Well since we're here…" He tapped his wrist once more allowing his Kestrel to finally appear.

Behind him, the machine's active camo field dissipated from the outer hull, the field dispersed like petals of flowers floating gently through a breeze, it was quite a spectacular sight. But what caught the woman's attention was the object that remained, the machine sat in its fighter form behind Sheppard.

Its long shapely body slender and sharp, smooth and yet intimidating. The black skin of the machine seemed to resonate with life; of course Sheppard knew it was more to do with the reactive armour plating the fighter was made out of, and also the energy conversion tech. Kinue had held her breath and simply stood there for a moment amazed at the sight.

"Got your answers now?" Sheppard asked her with a smile on his face.

XXXXX

AN: Sorry guys I was going to have Sheppard bump into Graham in Tokyo and have him follow after Sheppard, but it didn't really fit in, and don't worry there's still quite a bit of stuff to add into this story. Also suggestions would be nice.


End file.
